WHAT JOSIAH SAW (USA) Directed by Vincent Grashaw
Out on old willow road on the outskirts of a small Texas town is a dilapidated farmhouse surrounded by a good swath of land. This is the Graham homestead. Tommy (Scott Haze) is on a rusted out tractor trying to get it started. He cranks the ignition. It pops and puffs. Plumes of smoke billow out. Inside Josiah (Robert Patrick) looks on. His powerful patriarchal presence felt through the glass of the window. Out on an old oak tree is the inscription;
Miriam Graham
Darling Wife
Beloved Mom
Josiah and Tommy sit around the kitchen table. Tommy says a prayer, “God, God I just love you and thank you from the bottom of my heart. For this food today. I pray for ma. I pray for pa. I pray for the man he lied to Amen.” Josiah tells Tommy a story and tells his son he is ignorant to believe in God.
The small town is like a lot of towns these days. Barely hanging on. A main street with a few shops. Oil developers are circling the town trying to buy up land relevant to their shale oil extraction. A couple of Devlin Oil company men meet with one of the assemblymen of the town. They want to buy the Graham property. Assemblyman Gentry points to a map, “Well, this is Willow Road. That’s the Graham property that’ll be a tough sell.” The company men do not seem to phased. “Most have a price.” Gentry continues, “That place has a bad history...something awful has come about.” He proceeds to tell them a story about the Graham family.
On a night when the winds are whipping up something fierce, the farmhouse creaking away. Josiah wakes up in a panic. He sees something above him. He is transfixed and frozen in fear. The next morning Tommy sees Josiah standing beside the oak tree. “Whatever bad you got inside you come from me. Everything good comes from your mother.” Josiah eyes wide and unblinking says God is indeed watching them. They can right their ways, right their wrongs. Getting right has to begin with spit shining the house. Tommy gets down to work. Whatever Josiah saw sure has changed him. At the kitchen table Tommy is about to pour him some whiskey. Josiah covers the coffee mug with his hand “Leave it be.” “No morning tea?” Tommy asks. “Not no more.” Things are turning around. Tommy sets upon the old tractor and it pops and puffs more smoke and wouldn’t you know it, the tractor starts.
Robert Patrick as Josiah is a dominating presence. He stalks around quietly and on the turn of a dime flies into rage. His wide-eyed, unblinking blue eyes are a force of nature. The eyes that can be infused with drunken lunacy, outright terror, menace and malice. Scott Haze playing the son who has returned has the formidable task of sharing scenes with Robert. He rises to the challenge. From Tommy’s posture, dialect or the way he muses and cares for his pa even when his father is in a mean drunk is a role full of empathy and a longing to stay in pa’s good graces. Resolve and courage are two exemplary traits of good actors. Robert Patrick and Scott Haze display these traits as the story moves into unsettling and disturbing ways.
Eli arrives in the story in a frenzied moment of passion. As Josiah remarks about his son, “First step that boy took was a mud pile of trouble.” Looks like Eli continues to step in a mud pile after mud pile of trouble. Eli navigates a violent, rough and tumble world of gambling, whoring and drinking. Henry David Thoreau wrote in Walden, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.” Nick Stahl as Eli personifies such a man. A man who is perpetually down on his luck.
One of Eli’s many vices is gambling. He owes Boone, a bar owner and all around shady guy a shit ton of money. Boone is going to kill Eli. Unless. Eli has to accompany two of Boone’s guys, Logan (Troy Powell) and Billy (Ronnie Gene Blevins) on a job. Job don’t go well, Eli is dead.
The three man crew arrive at a gypsy carnival. “They say if a dog howls for no reason, there’s trouble coming. Gypsy lore.” Billy says, ”Lightning without rain these are omens” Eli sits in a trailer as Logan and Billy go on about things. Eli is approached by a young woman, they get to talking. She mentions Eli should meet with the median. He reluctantly agrees. The gypsy median tells him some things. Bullshit everyday platitudes or ominous omens? A lot of shit goes down. Looks like Eli might very well have a second chance. He shows up to his trailer with a letter from the oil company sitting on the floor.
Mary (Kelli Garner) is Joisah and Miriam’s daughter. She is married to Ross (Tony Hale). They are not doing well. They are trying to adopt a child. Mary is meeting with a therapist as a part of the adoption process. Eli shows up with the letter from the oil company shattering a peace that was never quite there to begin with.
Thomas Wolfe's posthumous novel is entitled, “You Can’t Go Home Again”. Mary and Eli have spent a lifetime with this as a guiding principle. The allure of the oil company money is the impetus. The confrontation with the past is the pull. A heart wrenching reunion with Tommy in the front yard of the farm house. The hugs and warm feeling is short lived. When Tommy informs Josiah his other children have returned the ominous tone ratchets up in intensity.
I like the novel structure of the film. There are also some great story telling moments in the beginning of the chapters when assemblyman Gentry (Ben Hall) and bar owner Boone (Jake Weber) relay a yarn. The film moves among its stories, characters and tones. Sometimes with ease, sometimes jarringly. That is probably the point. There is a lot of movie here. A film full of great faces. Vincent Grashaw makes some great distinct and visual choices to tell the story. There is such an ominous feeling of dread that permeates the film.
Film is a combination of so many things. Visual, musical, sound design. In a good movie one should not notice these things. However, for me, that is like going to the symphony and not seeing the musicians gathered around a half-circle on stage. When the elements of a film mesh well together it is pure cinema. Cinematographer Carlos Ritter brings a great look to the movie. Composer Robert Pycior's score is haunting, beautiful, and versatile as the tone of the film changes. Last but certainly not least, the sound design team of What Josiah Saw have done an amazing job. The sound design is exquisite.
What Josiah Saw is a southern gothic crime thriller. The film has a great foundation with Robert Alan Dilts screenplay and is anchored by strong performances from a great character actor ensemble. The story twists and turns in unexpected ways. Suspenseful, creepy, disturbing. Director Vincent Grashaw and his team of filmmakers keep the story moving in unique and compelling directions.
One of the core elements of What Josiah Saw is the stories people tell. The truth and lies. Through the murky lens of memory and manipulation.
Family reunions, much like film endings can be complicated affairs. What Joisah Saw will definitely have much discussion after the credits roll. That is a testament to a film that is unafraid to go there.
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