ballast

Just watched Lance Hammer's 2008 film, Ballast. The film, which captured the Best Director and Best Cinematography awards at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, is the epitome of great cinema. The film ultimately lives or dies on the story itself – a sword that every great film must fall on. Hammer doesn't manipulate the viewer with storytelling tricks, nor does he use music to accentuate moments of drama; in fact, music is completely absent from the film, including the closing credits. Ballast soars because Hammer, who also wrote the script, relies on the story and the talents of the films four stars, who ostensibly are the film's only characters. Roger Ebert, who named Ballast one of his favorites of 2008, remarked that the movie "inexorably grows and deepens and gathers power and absorbs us." Indeed, the story is simple, but summarizing it is not. Essentially, Ballast is a tale of cause and effect, and it is watching how the characters react – not what they react against – that makes this such a compelling film.

Ballast is currently streaming on Netflix.

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