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Reviewed by Elliot V. Kotek
(from the 2009 Newport Beach Film Festival)

Director/Writer: Chris Cloyd
Starring: Devin Leigh, Joseph Bisoglio, Clara Couturier, R.J. Jones, Jonny Irons

Clay County, Kansas, 1962.

Sometimes, you can tell a film is special in its opening frames. A boy comes across a dead raccoon infected with maggots. He beats at it with a stick. The sunlight is soft, the setting Southern. The sound strums with the hum of an old pick-up bouncing along a dusty road, a bag in the back carrying a local black kid to an almost inevitable lynching.

Visually, Coons is a tour de force, and director of photography Rob Connolly simply must be watched for future efforts. Unfortunately, however, the lead bully and the main member of his posse ham it up, their unreal-ness denying the film the depth of the dire situation displayed.

Although beautiful, and effective enough to successfully make the rounds of the second tier fests, Coons contains so many masterful elements that one can’t help but wonder whether the director might be well-served to work it through again with a more experienced cast for wider reach and reward. -MPM

Photos courtesy of the filmmaker.