Palace

countries=USA
Drama
Andrew Paul Davis
Palace is a movie starring Chase Crawford, Emily Sweet, and Suzanne Sadler. The family-fractured lives of a stubborn auto-mechanic, a retired widower, and a repressed college student intertwine at a bar in rural Indiana
2018

It gets off to a strong start, exploring a political rumbling of our current moment before unleashing a volume of threads that continually intertwine, tying its characters together in one big Midwestern Depression Knot. There are smart choices in the script that allow its ambitious structure to coalesce, and it's anchored by some very good lead performances.

There're a lot of attempts to connect to something that isn't there, thematically, or something on the horizon that isn't quite clear yet. It's easy to connect to, and the film does a good job at slowly yet steadily introducing a little bit at a time. Coupled with production design that lends this authenticity that is vital to the tone of the film, it's a very impressive micro-indie feature. This is the Midwest by a Midwesterner, and its important to remember how much the setting plays into each character's personal desolation. Don't worry though, it keeps a sense of humor the whole way through. It has good dramedy bones.

However I do wish it didn't fetter out as it reaches the end, unable to wrangle all of its threads into a meaningful ambiguity. The final moments hinge on a character whose development feels like it should have been introduced earlier, among the other supporting characters of the film. Its first major character, Chris, I wish was the sole focus of the story, but what we lack in satisfying arcs is somewhat made up for in a mood that you wrap around yourself like an old blanket.