Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on March 2014

Brothers Frank and Jerry Lee (Emile Hirsch & Stephen Dorff, both excellent) have had a hard life. Their father split, their mother died, and Jerry lee lost a leg jumping a freight. Frank, a drinker, makes up stories to complement the other’s gift for drawing (sometimes wonderfully animated by Mike Smith). We pick them up just after Jerry Lee has hit and killed a boy on a bike, and their hardscrabble lives take on a tone of desperation as they try to get out of Reno, vaguely making for Elko, where Frank once knew love (Dakota Fanning). It’s a heartbreaking tale but never hopeless, and consistently honest. (85 min)