5.0
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Critics scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.
out of 100
Metascore®Universal acclaimbased on a weighted average of allcritic review scores.
A rock-ribbed sense of committed, personal cinema and a core belief in people being able to pull themselves out of misery supports Ballast, an extraordinary debut by editor-writer-director Lance Hammer.
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Ballast inexorably grows and deepens and gathers power and absorbs us. I always say I hardly ever cry at sad films, but I sometimes do, just a little, at films about good people.
This ostensibly simple film evokes whole lives in 96 minutes, and does so with sparse dialogue.
Shot with a sure hand and a cast of unknowns, the film doesn't so much tell a story as develop a tone and root around a place that, despite the intimate camerawork, remains shrouded in ambiguity.
A quintessentially American story that unmistakably echoes European art house cinema, combining the aesthetic purity of France's Robert Bresson with the social consciousness of Belgium's Dardenne brothers. It also is a powerful, character-driven melodrama that easily holds our attention from first to last.
Working with non-pro actors, Hammer pulls authentic performances from the trio that are at times almost too painful to witness.
The final shot, of the three characters now united, may be the quietest affirmation of life I've ever seen in a movie, and one of the truest.
See all Ballast reviews at Metacritic.com