Pierre Hunter is an optimistic bartender. When his parents die, Pierre decides to move back to his hometown. He falls in love with a mysterious doe-eyed woman named Stella. Pierre becomes involved with a bag of stolen cash and a violent criminal named Shane. "The Driftless Area' is a romantic dramedy film based on a novel by writer Tom Drury. The neo-noir film premiered on April 18, 2015.
"It is a great joy to be able to bring Tom Drury's hauntingly beautiful story to life with such profoundly talented actors, all of whom have inspired me for years," said film director Zachary Sluser in an interview with The Wrap.
"The Driftlesss Area' stars Zooey Deschanel as Stella, Anton Yelchin as Pierre, John Hawkes as Shane, Frank Langella as Tim Geer, Alia Shawkat as Carrie, Aubrey Plaza as Jean, and Ciarán Hinds as Ned. The film was directed by Zachary Sluser. Aaron L. Gilbert and Keith Kjarval produced the film. Tom Cross edited it. The film features music by Saunder Jurriaans and Daniel Bensi. Daniel Volheim is the cinematographer. Unified Pictures and Bron Studios is the production company. The film runs for 95 minutes.
Movie Reviews:
"These two live, confusingly, in the real, physical world, and one is left to guess whether this Driftless Area is a special place where different planes of existence jostle together freely," wrote John DeFore from Hollywood Reporter.
"Sluser's debut feature beautifully encapsulates how even the most fleeting encounters can alter the course of our lives," wrote Genna Terranova from the Tribeca Film Festival.
"A self-consciously quirky, slightly otherworldly tale whose eagerness to win audiences over with whimsy only succeeds at keeping us at arm's length," wrote Elise Nakhnikian from Slant Magazine.
"Ponderously exploring pedestrian notions of the universe and connectedness, while mixing in familiar coming-of-age conflicts of love, death, and loss, and sprinkled with bumbling neo-noir crime and even magical realism, "The Driftless Area" is an overloaded, but generally underwhelming and meandering story about small town existence, fate, and the meaning of life," wrote Rodrigo Perez from The Playlist.
