Lost Child

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Danie S This is one of the most truly moving and stunning movies I have ever seen. I was ugly sobbing for the last ten or so minutes of the movie. The characters are touching, real, and developed, and the acting is extraordinary. It's a slow burn, but that simmer at the end is so damn good. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/29/25 Full Review Cristian s Juega la carta de las supersticiones del campo para generar una expectativa de algo espectacular que puede llegar a pasar en el final pero que nunca llega. Drama lento e historia chata y lineal. Predecible. Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 02/22/24 Full Review Joshua B Do you like kismet? Cause that's what you're getting here; plus, solid acting and screenplay, and incredible performances from the female and child leads. And there is some really poignant commentary throughout. But it falls victim to a sort of "wild mare" trope, with the typical religious undertones. Complete with innocently overbearing (extremely rational!) nice guy (why oh why does she continue to buck his advances! After sleeping with him, nonetheless!) and lesson-delivering child who, by the end, becomes an obvious prop for conservative grievances (only guns and men can protect you, in the end!). Even as an atheist horror fan, it's a decent watch, but I had to hold my nose the whole time. At the end, I thought: is avoidance of parenthood a sin for women? I still felt the same as I had before about the expectation women face regarding motherhood. I suppose this is what it feels like to be a conservative and watch a feminist film? Idk, this is new to me - a film I like that has undertones I don't like. Take it for what it is. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 09/05/23 Full Review Aaron S Utterly dreadful. Never have I seen a story so uninterested in developing any part of itself. I made it *most* of the way. Rated 0.5/5 Stars •  Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 05/02/23 Full Review Kevin H A movie that had great potential for the superstition of the Ozarks, but leads you to nowhere with out a solid conclusion on what was watched. Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 04/02/23 Full Review Ronald H "Lost Child" is a slow burn southern gothic film about people city dwellers can't imagine: hardscrabble rednecks living in dilapidated shacks and trailers in the Ozarks. On top of that, the film deals with superstitions about demons and monsters in the woods. They may or may not be real, but the behavior of their believers surely is. Levin Rambin is Fern, a soldier who has finished her duty and is returning to her home to find and reconcile with her long-lost brother. While searching for him, she stays at her late father's run-down house in the country. One day, she sees a young boy (Landon Edwards) in the woods. He's scared and withdrawn. She manages to learn his name–Cecil–and she contacts Social Services, who will either return him to his family or place him in foster care. But Mike, the social worker (Jim Parrack), sees a bond between Fern and Cecil, and he talks Fern into keeping him for a few days while he tries to locate the kid's family. Then the weirdness starts. Fern starts to get sick with a cough and insomnia, and her hair starts falling out. She visits a country doctor who, when he realizes that her symptoms began when she took in the boy, hands her a piece of paper. But it's not a prescription. It's a note that says "tatterdemalion." That's a term that denotes a tattered, ragged child. But to the locals of these hills, it means a demon who sucks the life out of the people around him and eventually kills them. I won't explain any further. But we spend the rest of the film wondering if Cecil is indeed a demon, and when we finally get the answer, we can look back at what we have watched, and we understand everything that has come before. Horror fans will be frustrated with this film because all of the horror is implicit. Thriller fans will lose patience with the film's slow, deliberate pace. It took me a while to engage with Fern, because when we first meet her, she's not particularly endearing. The first thing she does when she arrives in town is slam down a bunch of bourbon and hop in the sack with a bartender (who turns out, not coincidentally, to be Mike, the social worker). Fern is not particularly sociable—she holds Mike, Cecil, and everyone else at a distance, emotionally speaking. There's a subplot involving Fern's brother which is irrelevant to the main story, and there are a couple of missteps–scenes that could have been written better, and dialogue that's occasionally a bit cliched. The establishing scenes in the beginning seem a bit hurried. But the film tends to draw you in as the mystery blossoms. As to the performances, Rambin and Parrack are quite dependable, but it's Edwards who holds your attention as the lost child. He's able to convey pain and grief that's far beyond his years. Ramaa Mosley is a filmmaker to watch. She knows how to create atmosphere–and she knows how to tantalize an audience with a mystery that begs to be solved. And it is solved–perhaps not surprisingly, but satisfactorily. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 11/09/24 Full Review Read all reviews

Lost Child

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