An evocative, lyrical film about the cycles of bad decisions, madness and the ghostly fingers of the Vietnam War.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 16, 2019

[An] intensely raw, empathetic non-fiction portrait.

| Original Score: A- | Nov 21, 2010

Sometimes ghosts don't have to come from the grave to haunt someone...

| Oct 7, 2010

The film piles on its endless family issues with the subtlety of a sledgehammer, never bothering to provide much in the way of social context. It feels far more exploitative than illuminating. What this family needs is a therapist, not a spotlight.

| Jul 7, 2010

Gorgeously shot and ethically problematic.

| Jul 7, 2010

Eventually you wonder whether the capacity to accept and forgive is a virtue or part of what's holding the Moshers down.

| Jun 3, 2010

The beauty of October Country, beside its artful images, is how it compresses the windblown fortunes of working-class America into the fallen leaves of one forlorn family.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 3, 2010

If you give October Country enough of a shot, it becomes crystal clear that filmmakers Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher care about their subjects.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 7, 2010

You can probably extract a sociological or political message from the film, but I don't think that was the intention. This lack of an agenda seems to add to the movie's intensity.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 7, 2010

Too often, the camera is angling to be the star.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 29, 2010

Mohawk Valley is a beautiful place, but, just like the Mosher family, it's been blighted by modern times. Here is a place where people gather to watch fireworks. At Walmart.

| Original Score: B | Apr 14, 2010

A powerful portrait of the American working poor and the dynamics that govern all families, regardless of economic class.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 9, 2010

It's a remarkable, unsentimental portrait that refuses to condescend or lecture to either its subjects or its audience.

| Original Score: B+ | Apr 1, 2010

Unlike similar yet superior films like Capturing the Friedmans, October Country has no mysteries to probe or revelations to share.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 18, 2010

There's a feeling of real intimacy and compassion and there's also just heartbreakingly sad stuff.

Full Review | Mar 1, 2010

How voyeuristic is too voyeuristic?

Full Review | Mar 1, 2010

A devastating documentary portrait of its filmmaker Donal Mosher's family living in the culture vacuum of Mohawk Valley, New York, "October Country" is an essential social document of American reality.

| Original Score: B | Feb 17, 2010

Documentary focuses on the despair of one extended family, but might as well represent an uncompromising, microcosmic study of American poverty.

| Feb 17, 2010

The film has a haunted, autumnal motif

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 17, 2010

An enlightening, well-edited, haunting, thoroughly compelling and unflinchingly honest documentary that's essential viewing for every family, whether dysfunctional or not.

| Original Score: 9.5/10 | Feb 13, 2010