SXSW Review: Gorgeous, Meditative 'The Retrieval,' Starring Jury Award Winner Tishuan Scott (CLIP)

But the most saliently impressive quality in the film is its gorgeous mounting of period. Historical specificity is a financial burden for any production, and particularly for an independent one. The production design isn’t lavish, and much of it is shot in backwoods areas away from civilization, but it has a worn and tattered, grey-gold uniformity that extends from the locations to the costuming, and the beautifully lensed cinematography.

Indeed, “The Retrieval” is the best-looking film I’ve seen while at SXSW, taking advantage of such visual wonders as frost-covered fields, misty swamps and the endless shades of bleakly glowing brown that the Texas landscape provides in winter. The clean shot composition focuses on the many aesthetic ways men can be filmed walking. Eska, who also edited, shows a flare for tension built through rhythm. How Will, Nate and Marcus learn to trust each other (or not) is communicated through shot and reaction shot duration. Meanwhile, the occasional moment of incisive action is elegantly constructed; Nate shows his ruthless side when he -- beat -- tells a man to stop running away, and then -- next beat -- expertly fells him with a hatchet.

Scott is deserving of the Jury Acting prize, capturing Nate as a lone soul with strong instincts, in need of a son as deeply as Will is in need of a father figure. Sanders is also strong as Will. His chemistry with Scott is moving, and ultimately heartbreaking, but his best scene is opposite a pretty young girl they meet while passing through a community of freed slaves. In a quiet moment, the girl giggles and tells Will she wishes he’d stay, that there aren’t many other children around. “I ain’t a child,” Will says, hesitating for a fraction of a second before he and Nate continue on.

Clip below of "The Retrieval," with a TOH! exclusive second clip here.