Snow Angels

This film is by one of my favorite directors - David Gordon Green who also directed "George Washington," "All the Real Girls," and "Undertow".  People kind of see him as a second-rate Terrence Malick but I think he's more of an evolution of him.  One thing he can do is affect you and everything he does (almost everything) feels genuine and real.  It's amazing how you can tell from the first frame of a movie whether a director knows what the hell they're doing or not.  Everything in the movie plays out so casually.  Usually the more explosive the situation, the more casually it's played, like all the scenes right before Kate B's death.  There's no suspenseful angles or stirring music to move the scene, just the real emotions of the actors.  Reminded me of "Elephant."  I liked the use of the distant camera in the movie, shooting at a wide angle makes the audience feel like they are observing quietly, like you're spying on them.  At the same time there's not all that zooming in and out that "Friday Night Lights" overused.  Everything was great about the movie until the third act when it got all Hollywood-y and someone had to break out a gun.  Of course.  But other than that it's a film you can really examine to learn how the director slowly builds a feeling through tiny, human events.