This movie is an intimate character portrait that masterfully juggles story, character, and pacing. It’s slow in places to get the audience into the headspace of the protagonists so that when everything starts happening at once we can follow what’s really going on. Of course Sam Rockwell and the legendary Kathy Bates are fantastic, but the true standout performance is Paul Walter Hauser who disappears into the starring role. The film is appropriately tense and somber but lets out the tension enough to keep from being too depressing. This is the way docudramas should be made.

Closest comparison: It’s like a cross between The Blind Side (2009) and The Fugitive (1993).

Setting: Family Drama
Plot: Biography
Tone: Tragedy