This video touched my Fried Chicken, Biscuits, grits, & gravy Southern Soul. There is something about the South (especially among blue-collar working class) that is particularly alluring. And I do find it often to be both the land & the people. The contemporary South is poorly displayed & underrepresented in Hollywood. It's a shunned region- and it's a shame how badly it gets stereotyped and overlooked. I'm glad these films or other great works like No Country For Old Men, or True Detective do come out and take center stage in pop culture in pop culture sometimes. I'm from Carolina- I do wish I'd see more films or shows take place in the Carolinas. Anyway- great video essay!
Thanks! I think we'll see more over time. Now that a lot of filming is happening in Atlanta and nearby areas, more of those people are just starting to set their films in those locations.
This was great! Mud is one of my personal favorites, just love the atmosphere and calmness of that film! Do you have any recommendations for other films that accurately depict the American south? Asking as a European who loves to see authentic, unfamiliar places in films :)
Part of why Nichols' films are so special to me is because they're one of the only places I've seen this image of the south portrayed. (If anyone else has any recommendations, let me know!). There are other films that portray different parts of the south accurately though. Moonlight, is one example of an accurate depiction of a different side of the south. Beasts of the Southern Wild, portrays almost a more surreal/romanticized version of the south Nichols' shows. Winter's bone has a similar feel, but is almost so dark and gothic it feels like it dips into caricature. Wish I had more!
Oh and just thought of this, Definitely watch American Honey. It's more focus on the American Midwest but has a similarly accurate portrayal of life in those areas.
The south's a bit of an enigma, even to those who are tied to it (myself included). Its seldom portrayed accurately. This is in part due to the vastness of diversity that lies within in it (it accounts for the overwhelming majority of America's diverse population). It is also due to a deep and complex history, poverty, wealth, and a million other different factors and all the ways they interact. Filmmakers struggle to recognize or navigate this complexity, much less represent it. Beasts of a southern wild is really strong and captures a part of the southern soul. For southern politics the HBO/Bryan Cranston Film "All the way" is really representative, despite being about a presidency. The super gothic stuff is entertaining but would only really be reflective if taken as something that is not ubiquitis within the region (true detective might be good here).
As a native Southerner, born and raised, I'm a massive Nichols fan. His sense of place lured me, and his honest writing has kept me hooked. As a writer, MUD changed my creative perspective about what a movie could be. A very special filmmaker for me, indeed; glad to a formal video essay on him recognizing his significance! Thank you!
Nichols is great at portraying community. He populates the setting with these small characters that were to me, a born and raised Tennessean, immediately familiar and identifiable, even though I've never step foot in Arkansas. There's a sense of a world that the main characters are apart of that is affected by them and their actions, in the way small town southern communities are. As far as other directors who have done this, I'd say the Coen's have a few different times. The Minnesota in Fargo is so distinct and strange, and Texas in No Country is just as much a character in its own right.
Hope you all enjoyed this video! I'm a big fan of Jeff Nichols' films and it was fun to talk about it. I write follow-up blogs, channel updates, movie reviews (for films like Blade Runner 2049), and more on my Patreon. You can get access to all that by supporting my channel: Support my Patreon: www.patreon.com/thomasflight
2:56 I like how "men do what the can to scrape by" coincides with a shot of Shannon playing a collectable Gibson Les Paul Custom Silverburst (that's $5,000-10,000 used) through Epiphone Blues Custom (~ $1,000).
Really good video. I have to check out Nichols. I'm more of a lit person, but I agree with you, it doesn't sound like Southern Gothic like Flannery O'Connor or Tennessee Williams. Maybe Rural Ruin would be a more appropriate term? I've noticed it in literature - it's a common theme in many settings around rural areas around the country - Coal mining towns in PA and West VA, heavily industrial towns in upstate NY, the rust belt and so on. Any place that the wealth and resources have been depleted and the more mobile have moved on. Richard Russo is a good example of what I'm talking about.
Rural Ruin. I like that! I think it get included into Southern Gothic, and sometimes there's overlap (like with HBO's True Detective Season 1), but it definitely feels like a distinct category.
There is overlap with gothic and noir. I'm reading a book right now (All Things Cease to Appear by Elizabeth Brundage) that's partially set in the 1970s upstate NY and it's got that gritty, dying small town failure in it. The setting crumbles along with the characters. There's a murder to be solved though, so it's easy to put it in the Rural Noir category. I've also seen the term "Hick Lit", but I don't really like it because it dismisses the characters out of hand.
Huge Jeff Nichols fan here! Loved this video. You've earned yourself a sub, my friend! As a filmmaker myself, I'm really inspired by Jeff Nichols. Like him at the start of his career, I'm a nobody with zero connections to the film industry, and all the stories I want to tell are set where a I grew up. I hope to be able to do for the rural Pacific Northwest what Nichols has done for the south. Seeing that he has had so much success is incredibly encouraging to me.
What a great fuckin video. I saw Mud recently and I immediately wanted to see more about Nichols. I downloaded all of his films and this, like Mud, motivated me to see them. Loved it. Thank you.
Thank you for shining a light on a filmmaker that deserves more recognition, similar to the voice he is giving to the people of his beloved region. I highly recommend Chloe Zhao’s South Dakota films “Songs My Brother Taught Me” and “The Rider” both about a forgotten American culture, lost, even beaten, but slowly picking themselves back up.
What's your take on the depiction of the South in True Detective (S1)? I think it plays a huge role both as the subject of the series and its style-defining setting. I found it very immersive. To me, Mud and True Detective are the first to come to mind when someone mentions the rural American South.
There's ongoing debate over the Southern culture of Ohio and whether a portion of it, through the Appalachian influence, can be considered the "South."
Thank you very much for this video! I love and treasure movies about American South, although it's very hard to find those that are about people and their relationships and have no (or close to none) violence and action. My jewels are "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" and "Loving". I will also add TV series "Rectify" and "Days of Heaven" to the list, but they go a bit away from muddy, wild South with the vibe where people live off the land. If anyone can point me to movies or series set in the South that have no thriller/horror/action elements and revolve around drama and relationships between people - I'd really appreciate it!
I like the movie. Don't know if I'd call it masterpiece as I felt the ending/final shootout was kinda a bit too much action movie compared to the rest of the film, I think if Mud just kinda left in the middle of the night with maybe some kinda chase scene, that would've been enough than pretty much 4-5 or how many murders happened. It didn't hurt the movie I'd say, but that's when the up to that point very solid, earnest, plain and upfront storytelling about coming of age, one doomed love, one odd rascal living in the backwoods (Mud) went Hollywood and it didn't need to. Otherwise great movie, felt true, authentic and McConaughey's best performance for sure as he is both him, but Mud is also kind of a crooked, dirty vagrant, which is not his usual style and he played it well.
This is an excellent video and the best one on speaking about Jeff Nichols and why he is such an important filmakers... We love his movies. Shotgun Stories is a masterpiece.
omg i luv this vid so much! it's so riveting to see american culture divided between interpretations with directors and their audience disputing what is real, or good , or bad and better, while amazing film essayers like you making videos like these to help illustrate the fuller picture to oblivious newcomers like myself. although Film was't born in america , iv'e been noticing some of the most influential films coming from there, not the most innovative, but quite sucessful. you keep making these incredible films about film , i'll be watching
I could never live in the city, I’ve been in the country my whole life, my neighborhood is so secluded I could shoot off a 12 gauge in my backyard and nobody would question it. I’ve been in the city and been in the country and prefer the seclusion of the country so much more. I don’t have to worry about being quiet or being judged and everybody knows everybody in the country, in the city where my gma lives she has like 5 neighbors near her house we’ve never talked to once.
I really liked your video introduction to the work of Jeff Nichols, immediately looked up his filmography, wanting to watch every movie of his I can get my hands on. Your video makes it clear, that these are predominantly films about a men's South. Most of the short scenes you show overwhelmingly depict male characters, you yourself talk about the protagonists' problems as being those of men. But you also convey that these guys, and their lives' paths and struggles, are kept real in Nichols' movies, and that's a rare feat, not only concerning the American South. Too many male movie characters are mostly caricatures. Maybe entertaining to watch, but still unable to present us with men you could actually connect with, or care about. There are some great exceptions, sure, but they are just that, exceptions. And I must admit, the older I get, the more I'm looking for some substance in my movie sustenance. So, thanks.
Super video. I loved Mud but have never seen the others, although since watching this, they're now on order! I hope you don't mind - I recommended this video on Reddit (www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/7padzl/the_beauty_of_jeff_nichols_american_south_films/)
Great video essay. Love me my Jeff Nichols. Speaking on the american south portrayed accurately, how do you like taylor sheridan's body of work? As a writer/director, not an actor. Also if you love Jeff Nichols portrayal of an accurate southern United States, you should check out Walker Evan's photography set with the farmer's security administration and stuff after that.
Big fan of Sheridan also! I think of his work more as portraying the American West/Midwest but he uses a very similar gaze to Nichols' on the south! I'll check out Walker Evan's work, it sounds great.
I think.. and I love the way jeff works at the same time.. the story he tells is devoid of diversity in a pretty diverse place. it could be parely due to low character count it could be a lot of things. It's just i think part of the issue here with the south is it needs to better invest in local film makers like it started to do. get the arts back in place.
Nichols' south, like I said in the video, isn't a complete picture of the south by any means. While the south is an incredibly diverse place, sadly, a lot of communities and areas are still heavily segregated. Nichols (In Mud and Shotgun Stories) is telling stories about those types of areas, so I think in a lot of ways he's just telling what he knows. He deals with some of those issues pretty head on in Loving and portrays those parts of the south honesty as well. A big issue is that there just not many stories told about these places, so we haven't covered all the bases yet. That's why it's great that other directors like Barry Jenkins are making films like Moonlight that authentically show a different image of the South, one he grew up in. You can read some of Nichols thoughts on this issue in this article: www.theguardian.com/film/2017/jan/26/jeff-nichols-civil-rights-film-loving-us-race-issues-film
