Review of Hale County This Morning, This Evening (2018) by Brent_Marchant — 01 Feb 2019

This painfully slow, unfocused documentary about the lives of poor, Southern rural African-Americans will, regrettably, leave viewers waiting for the ending. Through the use of images, pretentious segment heading graphics and underdeveloped observations from the film's subjects alone, with no voiceover narration, director RaMell Ross has attempted to let the material speak for itself, an approach not unlike what's seen in such cinematic tone poems as "Samsara.

" Unfortunately, the themes that the filmmaker claims he was trying to depict don't come through as clearly and pointedly as he contends. The approach is so "slice of life" that it's difficult to grasp what he was really aiming for.

Overlong, woefully unedited sequences of incidental events, the inclusion of beautiful but basically pointless nature shots, excessive use of gimmicky time-lapse photography and a dearth of meaningful insights from the film's subjects combine to make for a production that leaves the audience wanting, as well as wondering what this film is truly supposed to be about.

What's most disappointing, though, is that this offering has garnered an Oscar nomination for best documentary feature at the expense of other, better entrants -- truly unfortunate.