The World Made Straight movie review (2015)
Leonard warns Travis that it's not a good idea to steal pot from feared criminals, but the kid won't listen, and during a return trip to Carlton's property, he gets his foot stuck in a bear trap, passes out, and finds himself in Carlton's house, with the bearded, bearish crime boss looming over him. Earle is a revelation here: he's given decent performances elsewhere, notably in David Simon's HBO series "The Wire" and "Treme," but this is a full-bodied character turn filled with right-on choices, including the measured, vaguely philosophical way that Carlton delivers threats, as if he's always speaking hypothetically even when describing exactly what he's going to do to someone. After a brief stay in a clinic where Travis is tended by a kind nurse and future love interest named Lori (Adelaide Clemens of the Sundance series "Rectify"), he returns home to his family only to get kicked out, and holes up with Leonard, who takes a somewhat fatherly interest in the young man's fortunes and encourages him to study for his GED.
As you've probably gathered, a good portion of "The World Made Straight" is an Appalachian-flavored realistic drama about hard people living through hard times. The filmmakers take care to situate the crime, threats and one-upmanship within the context of reality. The houses, cars and clothes seem lived in rather than designed. Orr's photography pays loving attention to the texture of forests and hills and the way that sunlight flashes over a winding road at dawn. And the characters' economic distress always seems practical, never a storytelling conceit. ("You got too much damn pride to work a day like regular folks," his father tells the hero. "When's the last time you had a damn job?" Travis retorts.)
In all, however, the metaphorical and historical weight that the film places on the story's shoulders sits rather awkwardly, and the characters just can't bear the weight, even with Earle's plaintive and heroically un-ironic songs ringing out on the soundtrack. Like "Out of the Furnace," a present-day crime drama with similar elements that's set in similar terrain (though much farther north), "The World Made Straight" never figures out how to smoothly integrate its straightforward melodrama and literary pretensions. The music and photography sure are magnificent, though: every frame a painting, every scene a song.
