"Ballast" is a soft spoken gem (4.5/5)

If there is one issue I have with independent filmmaking it would be its weird desire to make films as quirky as possible. This is most notably accomplished through the creation of off-beat characters who have similar traits as every day people, but only their neurotic traits are amplified by 100. Case and point, "Napoleon Dynamite", a film that sucks its characters out of bizarro world. If these particular characters, who are so colorful and brazen, actually existed they would be deemed a social cancer, but since it's a movie, they're hip. I understand that the goal of an independent film is to be acknowledged in a theater when it's surrounded by films funded by major studios, thus creating caricatures is one way for an indie film to garner some kind of audience. Yet, what I find so disappointing about the indie film scene is that there are very few films that revolve around real, god honest people that get the backing and attention they deserve. As you can probably already determine, "Ballast" is one of those films that was buried.

First off, I must admit that "Ballast" is a film that requires your patience. Instead of investing in big moments and a plot that moves at break neck speed, the film slowly, but surely builds its characters into flawed and relatable human beings. The film, which tells the tale of three individuals ( a mother, her son, and a grocery store owner) coming to grips with a suicide, starts off very slow. We don't know much about our characters, but as time unfolds, the film offers us moments that expose our characters in ways we initially could only assume.  Normally at this point I'd offer a more in-depth plot synopsis, but I'll refrain simply because the film isn't entirely concerned with plot anymore than it's concerned with characterization. Not to mention, laying out what happens in the film would only cheapen the experience of watching these characters go from mere sketches to embattled characters wrapped in flesh and bone.

Each character is as real as you and me, and their lives are amplified even more when they're juxtaposed against the back drop of the Mississippi Delta, a poverty torn piece of land that is as run down as the souls that inhabit the infertile land. Director Lance Hammer and cinematographer Lol Crawley use the landscape as a means to cueing us in our characters and their inner turmoil when we know nothing about them in the first half. Yet for as powerful and draining as the landscape can be, much of the film is dependent on the acting of the principal characters, especially when the film features many dead moments, or observational minutes in which the characters think to themselves. Usually for a film like this, a director would want actors who can carry a scene with next to nothing going on, but "Ballast" goes a different route and has inexperienced locals portray the protagonists. Do these newfound actors chew scenery with the likes of Daniel-Day Lewis or Javier Bardem? No, but they're not asked to be the center of the film; they're just asked to provide some gravity for their respective characters and they do just that, as they bring humble and authentic performances to the film.  Here it is, the rare independent film that features real characters, portrayed by real human beings as they grapple with grief, redemption, and the path to a better life. There are certainly some quirks to the film and the vintage abrupt indie ending, but "Ballast" has a quiet power that is as real as it gets.