This is a quietly unsettling Southern Gothic film centered around a family facing hardship near the swamps of western Florida. A Vietnam veteran who’s become a beekeeper (Peter Fonda) navigates loss, questions about purpose, his son's incarceration (Tom Wood), his daughter-in-law struggling with substance abuse (Christine Dunford), a defiant granddaughter (Jessica Biel), a new neighbor (Patricia Richardson), and some trouble from Orlando (Steven Flynn and Dewey Weber). "Ulee’s Gold," released in 1997, feels like it belongs alongside films such as “Ode to Billy Joe” (1976), “The Man in the Moon” (1991), “Sling Blade” (1996), “The Apostle” (1997), “Undertow” (2004), “Back Roads” (2018) and "The Devil All the Time" (2020). Although it’s not as consistently bleak or unpleasant as the most recent two on that list, it portrays some of the toughest realities of contemporary life—experiences I think many people can understand. I appreciated the film's grounded realism and its willingness to unfold at a deliberate pace. Some critics have championed this movie, but one person dismissed it, claiming the events are so ordinary they resemble something you’d see on Lifetime or Hallmark. This assumes that movies shown in theaters always need constant, unrealistic excitement and action, which isn't true, especially for a drama. It would be ridiculous to imagine “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest” including an explosion or action scene every few minutes. The movie has a running time of 1 hour, 53 minutes and was filmed in Florida, just east of Panama City, specifically in Apalachicola, Port St. Joe and Wewahitchka, with one scene shot in Orlando. GRADE: A-

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