Synopsis
Child of God (2014) is James Franco's bleak drama, available to watch online on iFILM. It adapts an early Cormac McCarthy novel about a man who falls out of every human order there is.
The setting is the mountains of east Tennessee. Lester Ballard loses his land and his home, has no family and no place among other people, and slides steadily toward the bottom. First he squats in an abandoned shack, then moves into a cave, growing wilder and crossing one line after another until he lands well outside law and morality alike. Scott Haze plays Ballard almost without words, on raw physical force, and that performance is what holds the whole picture together.
As a director, Franco refuses to soften McCarthy's prose or to make excuses for his subject — the title points to the writer's cold idea that even this creature is a child of God, much like yourself. The film is heavy and deeply uncomfortable, no casual night in: naturalism replaces suspense, and pity rubs right up against revulsion. Tim Blake Nelson and Franco himself turn up in supporting parts. Stream Child of God (2014) online on iFILM.
Starring
Comments 0