January 22, 2025 – This is a very quiet movie. The people don't talk much. They don't move much. The camera doesn't move much, either. Everything is very still and quiet. The movie looks good, but it is pretty static.

At the center of the story is a little girl, Lacy (played by Zoe Ziegler) living in a rural area near a communal artist colony that might be a cult. She mostly just sits and stares at people and things. Her mother, Janet (Julianne Nicholson of “August: Osage County”) is also into staring at people and things. Things do happen in the movie, but the overall dynamic between Lacy and Janet remains pretty much the same.

Part of the calm mood of this movie is created by the plot. There are almost no emotional highs and lows. The camera seldom moves, and there are a lot of static camera shots of scenes where nothing much is happening. It isn't exactly a boring movie, but it feels emotionally muffled.

The story seems to take place during a summer in which Janet has an extremely low-key break up with her boyfriend, Wayne (Will Patton of “Megan Leavey”). An old friend of hers, Regina (Sophie Okenedo of “Catherine Called Birdy”) leaves the cult, moves in with Lacy and Jenet, then moves back into the cult, after some friction between the three, and a seemingly friendly, low key visit from the cult leader, Ari (Elias Koteas of “A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas”).

Janet and Regina meet at a performance by the cult which is pretty impressive, involving elaborate costumes, glowing orbs and a kind of new age mixture of pagan and Eastern philosophical themes. That, and a kind of barn dance, are the liveliest parts of the movie. Lacy shows the most excitement when she meets Will's daughter, Sequoia (Edie Moon Kearns) and seems to have made a friend.

It seems the whole point of this movie is to show the emotional development of Lacy, and it does show that to some extent. It also shows that Janet, and her friend Regina have unresolved issues of their own to deal with. Of course, being an art film, all this stuff is left hanging by an abrupt ending.

One other annoying thing about this film is that several times, people are asked questions, but they just remain silent. That is awfully rude. There are those who argue that such art films need not entertain, but if you make movies that are not entertaining, it makes it hard to get financial backing for the next film. It is a business, after all. This film rates a C.

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