{"id":9175,"date":"2025-06-18T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailnewsgroup.com\/ohmr\/?p=9175"},"modified":"2025-06-18T14:31:43","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T19:31:43","slug":"stillness-cuts-deeper-than-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailnewsgroup.com\/ohmr\/stillness-cuts-deeper-than-violence\/","title":{"rendered":"Stillness Cuts Deeper Than Violence"},"content":{"rendered":"
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MOVIE REVIEW
\nFall Is a Good Time to Die<\/strong>
\n\u00a0–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Genre: <\/strong>Crime, Drama, Thriller
\nYear Released: <\/strong>2025
\nRuntime: <\/strong>1h 29m
\nDirector(s): <\/strong>Dalton Coffey
\nWriter(s): <\/strong>Dalton Coffey
\nCast: <\/strong>Joey Lauren Adams, Joe Hiatt, Jennifer Pierce Mathus, Borden Rolf, Christopher Dobesh, Clayton Tesch, Micah Kittelson, Michael Dobesh, Bill Beckers, Bill Sutton, Mickila Dewit
\nWhere to Watch: <\/strong>premieres June 20, 2025, on all major VOD platforms<\/p>\n

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RAVING REVIEW:\u00a0<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>This isn\u2019t just a story about a man seeking justice\u2014it\u2019s about what happens when that pursuit becomes the only thing holding someone together. What starts as a seemingly simple premise uncoils into something more introspective, leaning into long silences, raw tension, and morality rather than answers. The film doesn\u2019t rush to justify its characters; instead, it leaves them\u2014and us\u2014sitting with uncertainty. And that\u2019s where it finds its strongest footing.<\/p>\n

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Cody, a lone ranch hand whose world has long since stopped working, is pushed into motion again after learning about a man\u2019s release from prison\u2014someone tied to a deep, unresolved pain. Set across the open, windswept plains of South Dakota, the film anchors itself in a visual and emotional landscape marked by absence. The setting doesn\u2019t just serve as a backdrop; it reflects everything Cody refuses to say out loud.<\/p>\n

Dalton Coffey, pulling double duty as writer and director, leans hard into that visual storytelling. Rather than drive the plot forward with exposition or theatrics, he lets scenes breathe, sometimes until they feel like they\u2019re holding their breath. While that approach works in theory\u2014and often in practice\u2014it occasionally tips into over-reliance on atmosphere. The film thrives in stillness but fights slightly when that stillness becomes the only way.<\/p>\n

Joe Hiatt\u2019s performance as Cody is grounded, subtle, and intentionally low on theatrics. He doesn\u2019t play the character as someone waiting to explode but as someone who already did\u2014quietly, years ago\u2014and never quite put himself back together. Every gesture feels deliberate, and every silence carries weight.<\/p>\n

Jennifer Pierce Mathus shares the story with Hiatt as Trista, the county sheriff. She\u2019s not here to deliver moral lectures or provide an easy counterpoint. Instead, Mathus presents a woman with her share of regrets, trying to stay balanced while walking an ethical tightrope. Their scenes together avoid confrontation in favor of reflection. There’s a mutual recognition of loss, mistakes, and roads that could\u2019ve led somewhere better.<\/p>\n

Jason White, the recently released man whose freedom sparks Cody\u2019s reawakening, remains more ghost than antagonist. That\u2019s intentional\u2014the film wants him to be an idea as much as a person\u2014but the downside is that Cody\u2019s mission lacks a tangible force to push against.<\/p>\n

One strength that can’t be overlooked is how Coffey\u2019s direction trusts silence, not just the absence of sound but the kind of silence that makes a viewer lean forward. The camera lingers, not to build suspense in the traditional sense but to emphasize the distance between characters and the thoughts they\u2019re not voicing. That choice doesn\u2019t just reinforce the film\u2019s mood\u2014it becomes its mood.<\/p>\n

The sheriff\u2019s past gets a few hints, but remains mostly out of reach. Giving her more room to deal with her choices would have added depth, especially since she\u2019s portrayed as someone still learning to live with consequences. The same could be said for Cody\u2019s sister, whose trauma catalyzes the plot. She exists more as a concept than a memory, which weakens the emotional stakes. A glimpse of who she was\u2014something intimate, even fleeting\u2014might have made Cody\u2019s spiral feel more deeply personal.<\/p>\n

Still, the film deserves credit for embracing moral ambiguity without flinching. There are no easy answers here, no clear lines between right and wrong. Cody isn\u2019t hunting resolution\u2014he\u2019s just trying to move forward without breaking. That sense of moral drift keeps the story alive, even when its momentum stalls.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t a movie interested in catharsis. It doesn\u2019t promise redemption and is not here to tie up loose ends. It\u2019s a quiet character study about how grief rewires people, about how justice sometimes feels more like a direction than a destination. While not every moment sticks its landing, and some choices beg for more substance, there\u2019s a clear sense of purpose in how the story is told.<\/p>\n

What ultimately works best is the commitment to tone. The film isn\u2019t confused about what it is\u2014it leans into restraint, unresolved tension, and muted emotion. That confidence gives the project its identity, even with a few rough patches. By the time the credits roll, what lingers isn\u2019t a twist or a final confrontation, but the question of whether anyone in this story ever finds what they\u2019re looking for. The answer isn\u2019t important. What matters is the search, and how far someone\u2019s willing to go to feel something again.<\/p>\n

Please visit https:\/\/linktr.ee\/overlyhonestr for more reviews.<\/p>\n

You can follow me on Letterboxd, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. My social media accounts can also be found on most platforms by searching for ‘Overly Honest Reviews’.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m always happy to hear from my readers; please don’t hesitate to say hello or send me any questions about movies.<\/p>\n

[photo courtesy of BUFFALO 8]<\/em><\/p>\n

DISCLAIMER:<\/strong>
\nAt Overly Honest Movie Reviews, we value honesty and transparency. Occasionally, we receive complimentary items for review, including DVDs, Blu-rays, CDs, Vinyl Records, Books, and more. We assure you that these arrangements do not influence our reviews, as we are committed to providing unbiased and sincere evaluations. We aim to help you make informed entertainment choices regardless of our relationship with distributors or producers.<\/p>\n

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MOVIE REVIEW Fall Is a Good Time to Die \u00a0–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller Year Released: 2025 Runtime: 1h 29m Director(s): Dalton Coffey Writer(s): Dalton Coffey Cast: Joey Lauren Adams, Joe Hiatt, Jennifer Pierce Mathus, Borden Rolf, Christopher Dobesh, Clayton Tesch, Micah Kittelson, Michael Dobesh, Bill Beckers, Bill Sutton, Mickila Dewit Where to Watch: premieres […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9176,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-digital"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mailnewsgroup.com\/ohmr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mailnewsgroup.com\/ohmr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mailnewsgroup.com\/ohmr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mailnewsgroup.com\/ohmr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mailnewsgroup.com\/ohmr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9175"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mailnewsgroup.com\/ohmr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9180,"href":"https:\/\/mailnewsgroup.com\/ohmr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9175\/revisions\/9180"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mailnewsgroup.com\/ohmr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mailnewsgroup.com\/ohmr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mailnewsgroup.com\/ohmr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mailnewsgroup.com\/ohmr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}