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

| Original Score: A- | Nov 21, 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

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

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

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

The Moshers' social environment -- the Remington firearms factory that is the bedrock of the local economy; the limited local options for restless young people; the comfort and tease of consumerism and popular culture -- is evoked rather than explained.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 12, 2010

October Country veers awfully close to exploitation.

| Original Score: B- | Feb 11, 2010

Intimate yet larger-than-life, this masterpiece of the everyday shows you don't need James Cameron's toy box to make images pop from the screen, much less to see and embrace the world anew.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Feb 10, 2010

If the film doesn't get anywhere narratively, that's just form following content: The Moshers themselves don't go anywhere, either.

| Feb 9, 2010

There's a distinctively, and hauntingly, dehumanizing quality about the graphic approach of October Country.

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

One understands how Donal Mosher could obtain access to this moments or stark honesty and bleak truth. One wonders what the family thought of the film when they saw it.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 19, 2009

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 19, 2009