I loved Robert Machoian’s The Killing of Two Lovers (2020) and he again examines a crisis of masculinity in rural America, albeit through a simpler tale.

The Joseph of the title is played by Clayne Crawford who was also the star of The Killing of Two Lovers. He is a likeable dad and insurance salesman, probably born and bred in a city but now living somewhere rural where his wife is quite at home. One fine morning he decides to go hunting on his own as he’ll “need to know how to do that kind of stuff if things get worse.” His wife Tess (Jordana Brewster) doesn’t want him to go as he is not that skilled with guns but he has a new vest and has shaped his moustache so that he feels the part.

We can tell he’s a nice guy but struggling with both his status as a man and what that means. He is inept with a gun and so his day spent on a friend’s property is a chance for him to act out his fantasy of success and machismo. Machoian leaves us in no doubt that something is going to go wrong. The soundscape is a mix of animal noises and horror-movie scraping strings, as well as echoes of the glory montage going on in Joseph’s head.

The incident that happens does thoroughly test the integrity of Joseph and Machoian gives us a few twists and turns so that it is not the simple arc that we expect. It takes a while to get to its point and it felt lacking in complexity and subtext. The final act (with a welcome appearance by Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is, I think, supposed to be meaningful but it felt anticlimactic after so much visual and aural tension.

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