Better Things

Dir Duane Hopkins w/ Liam McIlfatrick, Che Corr. 93 min. Discovery.

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BY Jason Anderson   August 26, 2008 20:08

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This haunting, visually austere if somewhat overwrought debut feature by British upstart Duane Hopkins traces the impact of a young junkie’s overdose death in a rural community that is filled with similarly lost souls. An unremittingly bleak portrait of alienation and societal decay, Better Things has no shortage of misery or agony, but nor is it without moments of grace and power. Hopkins’ flair for painterly compositions also points to greater things in his future.

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