REVIEW: God’s Country [2022]

Rating: R | Runtime: 102 minutes
Release Date: September 16th, 2022 (USA)
Studio: IFC Films
Director(s): Julian Higgins
Writer(s): Julian Higgins & Shaye Ogbonna / James Lee Burke (short story “Winter’s Light”)

All I’m saying is before you park on someone’s property, you have to ask.

When is enough enough? It’s the central question to all conflicts. Do you relent or do you push forward? Do you strive to find a solution or do you attack for victory? And which is right? Which is moral? You could argue that it depends on the circumstances. On context. That which is just can also be criminal. That which ends the issue today can ultimately ensure that it rears its head again in the future—more often than not, worse than before. As Sandra (Thandiwe Newton) explains to Nathan (Joris Jarsky) about halfway through Julian Higgins’ God’s Country, common ground demands sacrifice. But one can only keep sacrificing him/herself so many times before the moment arrives for the other side to finally understand what suffering is.

Adapted by Higgins and Shaye Ogbonna from James Lee Burke’s short story “Winter’s Light”, the conflict at the story’s core is never quite as simple as trespassing. Yes, Nathan and his brother Samuel (Jefferson White) have decided to use Sandra’s property as a staging ground for their hunting without her permission. Yes, she could have let them do so without any drama by simply looking the other way. But what would that silence actually cost? Condoning their white male privilege to ignore her right of ownership (“the cost of living in the country”) while enforcing their own (“mind your business”) only reinforces it. This hypocrisy is born from control (misogyny). It’s born from hate (racism). And, of course, fear-fueled entitlement.

You should be surprised by the amount of revelations positioned with time-released precision. What is Sandra actually grieving when she grieves her mother’s death? Why did they move to the middle of nowhere from New Orleans? Was she running from her past or from herself? Each new detail colors everything that occurred previously. Each conversation devolves into “us versus them” no matter how cordial their origins or how concrete an understanding had seemingly been found. And it all stems from the duality of who Sandra is and wants to be juxtaposed against what her neighbors believe they are and what their actions conversely reveal. We want to believe in righteousness, either through God or ourselves, but we too often forget that it cannot arrive at the cost of another.

There are so many great performances marked by self-recognition, especially as a result of situational awareness and knowing when they can feel emboldened without threat or repercussion. Jarsky wrestling with his pain and the knowledge that hurting another won’t help alleviate it. Jeremy Bobb’s acting sheriff acknowledging the farce of his authority and the lack of imagination his sheltered experiences have cultivated. Kai Lennox’s department chair recognizing the embarrassment born from his indignation in real time. And Newton accepting the nuance of her fight and the impossibility of real change without power. That’s where rage becomes necessary. Once the world grows indifferent to the rules meant to protect the less fortunate, civility and reason are dead. Words become meaningless without action.

Society has been pushed into the gray areas to acknowledge that innocuous events can spiral out of control and that incendiary ones demand a response. Newton delivers one of the year’s best turns with a character who can no longer avoid accepting that these truths are universal. You can leave one place for another, but it’s meaningless when the system remains broken. Maybe it’s more manageable for a time. Maybe it doesn’t concern you as much here as it did there. But it doesn’t go away. And the more we allow it to fester and grow, the less chance there is to survive it without violence. Verbal. Psychological. Emotional. Physical. By the end, violence is the only language we have left.

Thandiwe Newton as “Sandra Guidry” in Julian Higgins’ GOD’S COUNTRY. Courtesy of GC Film, LLC. An IFC Films release.