Blistering indie about a kid drawn in by a drug gang, his mother trying to juggle working and keeping her son from the drug culture, all within the quiet of rural Missouri bleakness. A bit confusing at the start, and a missed opportunity to be elliptical in the end, it never lags, and it draws you in to the point you can't look away. These pensive characters offer unspoken complexities, and a part of you knows this is thinly veiled reality. The organic nature of the narrative its almost stunning to observe. Tho not as intensely volatile as Winter's Bone w Jennifer Lawrence - a MUST SEE - but with the same style and veracity. There is also a measure of New Jersey Drive gang mentality thrown in, and no one is safe. A solid work from a first time director. 4 out of 5 coldly overcast souls

The prevalent theme is the feeling of sadness. But there are many other minute details of the hard and rough life, broken relations, gangs, drugs and violence. All the people in the films are totally non-professionals. There is no use of background music and no artificial lighting either. The deserted lackluster landscape and surroundings add to the feeling of sadness of the characters themselves. Above all it is also a profound character study.

Intricate, detailed and beautifully filmed. You are captivated by the images and dark colours from the opening scene leaving you to thirst for more. The depth of the characters and the performances from the cast pulls you right in. A near perfect drama.

i guess it might have been pretty good movie, but it somehow didnt touch me..

A "searing, subtle and contemplative debut"? Maybe, if you're a white critic plagued by some sense of suburban white guilt and too scared to say "It's boring, and the characters are annoying." Beautifully shot, though.

Heartbreaking and realistic. Watching this, it's hard to believe that we all live in the same country. That people like this live out their lives underneath the very same nation we are a part of. Anyway, this film is so understated and so well-done and so disturbing and surprising, it's a shame if you don't see it. So go see it.

If you're a fan of David Gordon Green or the Dardenne brothers, you should see this right now. Amazing cinematography.

(****): [img]http://images.chrc4work.com/images/user/icons/icon14.gif[/img] A truly engaging film. Well-acted.

Much more effective when it's working through silence than through dialogue, mainly because the nonprofessional actors aren't equipped to handle it.

I'm not sure if I've ever seen a film as raw as "Ballast". The image, the story, the performances', all vivid and true to reality. "Ballast" has a fuse a mile long, leading to a puff of smoke, instead of a blast of TNT. It's such a drastic change from what I'm use to seeing in cinema that I have to appreciate it (as well as enjoy it), despite it running slow at times. It's only an hour and a half long, but when you're dealing with reality-based characters in a reality-based environment you're bound to become bored like the characters every once and a while. With that being said I must go back and emphasize... the uniqueness of "Ballast" is worth the watch. You're going to be hit in the face by a soft squishy little hand of normalcy and minimalism, but it's worth experiencing... and admiring.

i guess it might have been pretty good movie, but it somehow didnt touch me..

One of those no-soundtrack, no-action, mumbling dialog dramas, this time about a penniless single mother - reclusive brother in law- errant son triangle. It did nothing for me.

Hauntingly realistic (without going too far down the violent and gritty route in the process) and moving drama which is beautifully shot. It stops short of brilliance only due to the slightly over subdued and ambiguous third act and the mumbling dialogue (I had to download subs for the damn thing).

Couldn't see what others are saying about this movie. The opening scenes are so slow and boring I lost interest within 5 mins. Kept going for 15 mins and then just gave up. Yawn!

You could make a documentary about broke-ass people in America who strive to live better, or, better yet, you could make a fictional movie that breathes even more realistically than a documentary ever could (influence caused by observation). It's a moving experience in an American demographic we often overlook.

Miserable, depressing and slow. Dont watch if your looking for action.

This tendency to view the characters as victims above all else, coupled with the eye-strainingly low light and sometimes mumbled dialogue, makes "Ballast" at the very least a challenging watch; it's the kind of filmmaking you want to lend 10p for the meter, and I suspect some will be tempted to walk away around the half-hour mark, when the characters bottom out and whatever narrative there is begins to have a little heat put underneath it... but its battles do feel hard-won, and the whole project is marked by a fierce determination to scratch something out on the margins about a part of the world, and the kinds of lives, we may not have seen very much of. There is promise in these rough, sometimes crude-looking strokes.

Beautifully (and accurately) filmed in the poor, barren Mississippi Delta. The actors are non-professional, and for the most part, it doesn't reek of amateurish Southern-acting (see any of those awful Christian-themed movies of the past few years). It's a slow burn, but there are several great scenes and moments peppered throughout. I liked it.

Tenemos tanto de eso por aqui y en mucha mayor cantidad que la pelicula no impresiona en estas zonas pero para los del norte si es algo nuevo y chocante. Interesante ejercicio de cine basico con muy pocos elementos que termina recordando al odiado (por mi), pero premiado, cine de los hermanos Dardene. Solo para amantes del cine para pensar, de lo contrario es sueño seguro.

Suppressed communication renders a gripping narrative about economical and emotional misery in a compressed part of the US we are not used to.