Tribeca 2017: "Sweet Virginia"
Nathaniel R reporting from the Tribeca Film Festival
Sweet Virginia begins with an unnerving burst of violence in the bar of a small Alaskan town. Initially the carnage and resulting grief feels as senseless as all violence does. What a world. But this being a slow burn neo-noir, we know from rich movie history that the killings won't prove to be random. Caught up in the aftermath of the crime are two newly widowed women (Imogen Poots and Rosemarie DeWitt) who aren't as grief stricken as they should be, the non-local murderer (Christopher Abbott) who decides to hole up in town for a bit, and the owner of the local motel "Sweet Virginia," a retired rodeo champ (Jon Bernthal) who, as it turns out, has been carrying on an affair with the widow for years prior to the picture...