Diagonaldi
Very well executed
Lumsdal
Good , But It Is Overrated By Some
Sexyloutak
Absolutely the worst movie.
nplatzer
Growing up in Texas and traveling to Texas towns to show horses as a youth, something about the feel of this movie felt very familiar. I thought the interaction of the people was very real. Movies in rural settings that focus on people's relationships have such a pure,albeit lonely feel. The lesson that apart from violence, people's differences won't hurt us or rub off on us and we can be friends and supportive of all different kinds of people. AND the soundtrack is my favorite album in all the world. What a bonus. I had never even heard of many of these musicians before and they are so good. Another movie I saw recently with a similar feel was Hi-lo Country. And this movie even had an appearance by Don Walser, another fabulous, although little known musician.
Silence91
"The Slaughter Rule" is an interesting, moving study of male relationships, with the movie portraying how the limits of male bonding are tested through past and natural emotion. Ryan Gosling is deep and effective as a teenage jock who's life has seen it's rocky roads, and then he meets a quiet, mystifying older man who wants to recruit him for a six man football team. What Gosling doesn't know is about the Man's past, which turns out to test their growing relationship. It's an often slow but alluring tale, absorbing you in to the story of characters that are both familiar and alien, and ending up with an odd but truthful ending that pulls out all the raw, closeted emotions that the two men have for each other, and it's home-movie-style video shoot and beautiful country scenery brings it to life.
ditkarrific
Here's what's good about "The Slaughter Rule:"--Ryan Gosling, Clea Duvall, and David Morse all give great performances. Gosling is, as always, pretty darn outstanding. The locales are often breathtaking.Here's what's bad about "The Slaughter Rule:"--Everything else. The script is horribly muddled. And while I can certainly appreciate a non-"feel good" movie, this movie is just boring. Great performances can't make-up for a movie with a stupid premise and a script that is filled with throw-away lines that often don't even make it sense. Just getting through the first hour became a chore.I stuck with it because of Gosling, but eventually I did myself a favor and changed the channel. Spoilers on here relayed the ending to me. I didn't miss much. Do yourself a favor--if you want a good Gosling flick, check out "The Believer."My score: 2 out of 10.
IndieKing
This is a prime example of a flick that breaks all the rules and is still damn good. You always hear filmmakers blather on about how they work their own way, and then you see their junk and think that maybe they should have read a book. This is not one of those times. it's an intense look into sports and rural life and how they interplay with one another in the Midwest. I was drawn to it by the title, and although it is about football, i could totally relate because when i played Youth baseball, I was on a team so bad one year that literally half of our games were called off early.Not that this has to do totally with sports, it is more about male relationships, as Roy, the lead character deals with the death of his father through his participation in six-man football. As the story unfolds, he is cut from his own team and hooks up with a new team coached by a strange outsider played by David Morse. he starts off just being intense, but then becomes creepy (there is a homoerotic undertone between coach and player). Ryan Gosling, who plays Roy is solid and Morse is terrific. This ain't "Remember The Titans" but still very much worth checking out. It got good press at this past year's Sundance Film Festival.
