Get Low is a period drama about an old hermit set in the 1930’s with a mysterious past. The roles are filled with two highly respected actors, Robert Duvall and Bill Murray. A lot of people will watch it just for them, but the good news is there is more than just that to look forward to.

Felix Bush (Robert Duvall) is a 1930’s Tennessee hermit who has lived on his own isolated property for the past 38 years. We get a sense of his personality when he puts up a sign that reads, “No Damn Trespassing, Beware of Mule.” He lives alone, unless you count his mule, which serves as both his best friend and transportation.

Most people of the town nearby know of Felix, he is the recipient of many name-calling and rumors of him run rampant. The opening scene of the film gives us the likely reason why people talk down about the hermit. The scene at the beginning is of a farmhouse on fire and a man running from it, which we presume is Felix.

For obvious reasons, Felix does not venture into town very often. However, he does make an exception to pay respects to his fellow hermit friend who recently passed away. On his visit he gets into a confrontation with a local. The local harasses Felix buy calling him names and throwing rocks at his mule.

Frank Quinn (Bill Murray) is a desperate funeral home owner that is just waiting for people to die, for his business to pick up. Because of the position his business is in, he transforms his assistant, Buddy (Lucas Black), into a salesman to generate new business. Buddy suggests meeting up with Felix to discuss funeral arrangements.

The two go to Felix’s place, who not surprisingly, was upset at first that there was an intruder on his property. As Buddy sits down to talk with him, it becomes clear that Felix is very curious as to what other people have been spreading rumors about. Of course, Buddy did not want to bring up the rumors but Felix insisted firmly. One such rumor was that Felix killed some people in a fist fight. To which is response was, “Is that all?”

When showing someone around his property they mention the beautiful scenery of trees, which his response is, “When you leave things alone, they know what to do.” Without knowing it, Felix metaphorically stated what his entire life has been like up until that point. It was blatant enough of an analogy that even a character in the film pointed it out. Apparently, the director did not want you to miss that connection.

The next day Felix shows up at the funeral home unannounced. Clearly, Frank is very nervous perhaps mostly because he is face to face with the hermit for the first time, but he may also just be excited that he finally has a customer. Felix lists off some arrangements he would like including the peculiar request that he wants to be alive at the funeral. He goes on to reveal why the odd request was made, he wants the people that have stories about him to attend.

Felix then sets out to find a Reverend to speak at his funeral and he has someone in mind. He meets with Reverend Charlie Jackson (Bill Cobbs) who seems to have not only known Felix for a very long time but may be the only person that knows what happened on the night of the farmhouse fire. Jackson asks Felix if he has asked forgiveness to the Lord for what he did, which his answer is no. Felix pleads that he has punished himself by living completely alone for the past 40 years but even he knows that is not enough to make up for what he did, whatever that was.

There is no doubt that Felix has some skeletons in the closest. We have no idea if he is a murderer, criminal or something even worse. But we do know Felix wants to set the record straight on what he did. His intentions shift from wanting to hear what other people’s stories about him, to him telling his story to others, the real story about him. We as viewers are just as interested in hearing the truth as the hundreds that gathered to hear it at his funeral party.

Get Low definitely benefits from having two well-seasoned actors. It is likely that both Robert Duvall and Bill Murray sit on most critics’ favorite modern-day actors list. Each is perfectly casted for their role. Duvall masterfully takes the lead role but is careful not to completely steal the show as Murray entertains us with his role as funeral director. Getting to watch both of them performance on the same screen is a treat.

First-time feature director Aaron Schneider gives us a wonderfully shot film, but it should come to little surprise since most of his work previously was cinematography. The 1930’s set looked authentic from wardrobes to interiors of buildings. Luckily, a good portion of Get Low is outside so we get to see beautiful shots of the Tennessee landscape, particularly the scene where he walks through the woods.

There was a lot of build up to the speech that he gives, but once that card is revealed there is not much left in the hand. Unfortunately, it did fail to fully deliver the emotional impact it intended to. But I still think it carried some feeling, we have Duvall to thank for that. I felt like the conclusion was not as good as the entire thing leading up to it, perhaps keeping the idea of not knowing what exactly happened would have been better.

Get Low started off going in an irony direction with the hermit coming to town and wanting to be alive for his own funeral. But it switches to more of a serious and emotional direction about midway through. While the conclusion may have missed a little emotionally, it does not take away from the fact that this is a great film to see.

Film Independent Spirit Awards is arguably the most important film awards of the year, however, it is easy to be over-shadowed during the award season by the Oscars. This is especially true if it is held just one night before.

Black Swan took home the most awards this year with 4 including most of the big ones including; Best Picture, Best Director, Best Female Lead and Best Cinematography. I am glad that Black Swan was the leader of awards because I think it was the best film of the year. Winter’s Bone had the most nominations going in with seven but only walked away with 2 wins for Best Supporting Male and Best Supporting Female.

There were not a lot of huge surprises, with maybe the exception of John Hawkes winning over Mark Ruffalo, and I felt like everyone who won deserved to win. The Independent Spirit Awards ended up being a great watch thanks to the host Joel McHale and all of the presenters.

See the full list of nominations

Black Swan

Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan

Get Low, directed by Aaron Schneider; Producers: David Gundlach, Dean Zanuck

Daddy Longlegs

Stuart Blumberg, Lisa Cholodenko, The Kids Are All Right

Lena Dunham, Tiny Furniture

Natalie Portman, Black Swan

James Franco, 127 Hours

Dale Dickey, Winter’s Bone

John Hawkes, Winter’s Bone

Matthew Libatique, Black Swan

Exit Through The Gift Shop

The King’s Speech, Tom Hooper

Please Give
Director: Nicole Holofcener
Casting Director: Jeanne McCarthy
Ensemble Cast: Ann Guilbert, Rebecca Hall, Catherine Keener, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Lois Smith, Sara Steele

Anish Savjani, Meek’s Cutoff

Mike Ott, Littlerock

Jeff Malmberg, Marwencol

Marwencol

The 2011 Independent Spirit Award nominations were announced today with Debra Granik’s Winter’s Bone being the front runner. Winter’s Bone could be this year’s Precious as it has the most nominations this year with seven which include; Best Feature, Best Director, Best Screenplay and acting nominations for Jennifer Lawrence, Dave Dickey, and John Hawkes. Some of the other major nominees include The Kids Are All Right which received 5 nominations, Black Swan and Rabbit Hole which received 4. All four of those films have a good chance at Oscar nominations as well.

Although, I have not seen the Duplass brother’s Cyrus or Philip Seymour Hoffman‘s Jack Goes Boating, I am a little surprised that they were not one of the major contenders. I suppose Jack Goes Boating did haul in 3 nominations and Cyrus did receive 1 for Best Male Lead. I would have thought they would have had some more praise considering the people behind the films. Also Best Worst Movie did not make an appearance for Best Documentary, bummer.

Joel McHale will host the 26th Film Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica on Saturday, February 26 which will air that night on IFC at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT.

127 Hours, Danny Boyle, Christian Colson, John Smithson
Black Swan, Scott Franklin, Mike Medavoy, Arnold W. Messer, Brian Oliver
Greenberg, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Scott Rudin
The Kids Are All Right, Gary Gilbert, Philippe Hellmann, Jordan Horowitz, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte, Celine Rattray, Daniela Taplin Lundberg
Winter’s Bone, Alix Madigan-Yorkin, Anne Rosellini

Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
Danny Boyle, 127 Hours
Lisa Cholodenko, The Kids Are All Right
Debra Granik, Winter’s Bone
John Cameron Mitchell, Rabbit Hole

Everything Strange and New, directed by Frazer Bradshaw; Producers: A.D. Liano, Laura Techera Francia
Get Low, directed by Aaron Schneider; Producers: David Gundlach, Dean Zanuck
The Last Exorcism, directed by Daniel Stamm; Producers: Marc Abraham, Tom Bliss, Eric Newman, Eli Roth
Night Catches Us, directed by Tanya Hamilton; Producers: Sean Costello, Jason Orans, Ronald Simons
Tiny Furniture, directed by Lena Dunham; Producers: Kyle Martin, Alicia Van Couvering

Daddy Longlegs, written and directed by Benny Safdie and Josh Safdie; Producers: Casey Neistat, Tom Scott
The Exploding Girl, written and directed by Bardley Rust Gray; Producers: Karen Chien, Ben Howe, So Yong Kim
Lbs., directed by Matthew Bonifacio, written by Matthew Bonifacio and Carmine Famiglietti; Producers: Matthew Bonifacio, Carmine Famiglietti
Lovers of Hate, written and directed by Bryan Poyser; Producer: Megan Gilbride
Obsedila, written and directed by Diane Bell; Producers: Chris Byrne, Mathew Medlin

Stuart Blumberg, Lisa Cholodenko, The Kids Are All Right
Debra Granik, Anne Rosellini, Winter’s Bone
Nicole Holofcener, Please Give
David Lindsay-Abaire, Rabbit Hole
Todd Solondz, Life During Wartime

Diane Bell, Obselidia
Lena Dunham, Tiny Furniture
Nik Fackler, Lovely, Still
Bob Glaudini, Jack Goes Boating
Dana Adam Shapiro, Evan M. Wiener, Monogamy

Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right
Greta Gerwig, Greenberg
Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence, Winter’s Bone
Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine

Ronald Bronstein, Daddy Longlegs
Aaron Eckhart, Rabbit Hole
James Franco, 127 Hours
John C. Reilly, Cyrus
Ben Stiller, Greenberg

Ashley Bell, The Last Exorcism
Dale Dickey, Winter’s Bone
Allison Janney, Life During Wartime
Daphne Rubin-Vega, Jack Goes Boating
Naomi Watts, Mother and Child

John Hawkes, Winter’s Bone
Samuel L. Jackson, Mother and Child
Bill Murray, Get Low
John Ortiz, Jack Goes Boating
Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right

Adam Kimmel, Never Let Me Go
Matthew Libatique, Black Swan
Jody Lee Lipes, Tiny Furniture
Michael McDonough, Winter’s Bone
Harris Savides, Greenberg

Exit Through The Gift Shop, Banksy
Marwencol, Jeff Malmberg
Restrepo, Tim Hetherington, Sebastien Junger
Sweetgrass, Ilisa Barbash, Lucien Castaing-Taylor
Thunder Soul, Mark Landsman

Kisses, Lance Daly
Mademoiselle Chambon, Stéphane Brizé
Of Gods and Men, Xavier Beauvois
The King’s Speech, Tom Hooper
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Please Give
Director: Nicole Holofcener
Casting Director: Jeanne McCarthy
Ensemble Cast: Ann Guilbert, Rebecca Hall, Catherine Keener, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Lois Smith, Sara Steele

In-Ah Lee, Au Revoir Taipei
Adele Romanski, The Myth of the American Sleepover
Anish Savjani, Meek’s Cutoff

Hossein Keshavarz, Dog Sweat
Laurel Nakadate, The Wolf Knife
Mike Ott, Littlerock

Ilisa Barbash, Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Sweetgrass
Jeff Malmberg , Marwencol
Lynn True, Nelson Walker, Summer Pasture