Ballast (2008)
84%RT Audience Score: 72%
Awards & Nominations: Nominated for 3 Oscars
3 wins & 3 nominations total
A searing debut by director Lance Hammer, this subtle and contemplative Mississippi set drama lingers long after its conclusion
Ballast is a movie that will leave you feeling like you just got punched in the gut, but in a good way. The story is raw and visceral, and the characters are so well-sketched that you’ll feel like you know them personally. The Mississippi Delta setting is hauntingly beautiful, and the edgy camerawork adds to the film’s overall sense of unease. It’s not an easy watch, but it’s definitely worth it. Just make sure you have some tissues handy.
Production Company(ies)
Amigo Media,
Distributor
Alluvial Filmworks
Release Type
Theatrical
Filming Location(s)
Florida Keys, Florida, USA
MPAA / Certificate
Not Rated
Year of Release
1944
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Color:Color
Black and White -
Sound mix:Dolby
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Aspect ratio:1.37 : 1
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Runtime:1h 36m
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Language(s):English, German, French
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Oct 1, 2008 Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 10, 2009
Genre(s)
Drama
Keyword(s)
drama, Mississippi, Lance Hammer, Nina Parikh, Tarra Riggs, Micheal J Smith Sr., JimMyron Ross, Johnny McPhail, box office, budget, reviewed by Ben Kenigsberg, Joshua Rothkopf, Philip French, Tim Robey, Anthony Quinn, Peter Bradshaw, MPAA rating, Alluvial Filmworks, recovering addict, suicide, family, poverty, despair, slow pace, minimalist, emotion, realism, hope, tragedy, grief, resilience, contemplative, searing, subtle, forlorn, regional specificity, identical twin, danger, uncle, estranged, stoic, non-professionals, Mississippi Delta, poverty, despair, sadness, leader, troublemakers, neighbour, gunshot, healing, future, hope, unfortunate, honest, real people, real world
Worldwide gross: NA
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): NA
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): NA
US/Canada gross: NA
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada opening weekend:
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): NA
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): NA
Production budget ranking: NA
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
ROI to date (est.): NA
ROI ranking: NA
JimMyron Ross – James
Tarra Riggs – Marlee
Johnny McPhail – John
Lance Hammer – Director
Lance Hammer – Writer
Director(s)
Lance Hammer
Writer(s)
Lance Hammer
Producer(s)
Nina Parikh, Lance Hammer
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
Nominated for 3 Oscars
3 wins & 3 nominations total
Academy Awards
All Critics (80) | Top Critics (32) | Fresh (74) | Rotten (6)
November 18, 2011 | Rating: 3/5
Ben Kenigsberg
Time Out
TOP CRITIC
November 17, 2011 | Rating: 4/5
Joshua Rothkopf
Time Out
TOP CRITIC
The opening half hour is electrifying, the ending interestingly open-ended…
March 22, 2011
Philip French
Guardian
TOP CRITIC
Quite a debut here from writer-director Lance Hammer, working on a minuscule budget in the Mississippi Delta, and evoking a memorably forlorn kind of regional specificity.
March 18, 2011 | Rating: 4/5
Tim Robey
Daily Telegraph (UK)
TOP CRITIC
March 18, 2011 | Rating: 4/5
Anthony Quinn
Independent (UK)
TOP CRITIC
A difficult, subdued film, but intelligent and with more intricacy and subtlety than at first appears.
March 17, 2011 | Rating: 3/5
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian
TOP CRITIC
The storyline is direct and the characters well-sketched. The film revolves around the impact of a suicide on the family of a convenience store owner.
March 5, 2021
Joanne Laurier
World Socialist Web Site
This moving debut effort combines edgy camerawork, a stark story and a cast of inspired non-professionals.
June 2, 2020
David Lamble
Bay Area Reporter
Ballast packs a punch and its raw, visceral quality is hard to forget.
December 24, 2018 | Rating: 3/5
Lucy Popescu
CineVue
Its sense of space and time contains not only sadness and boredom, but something more curious, the resilience of newly born hope, like a slender green spike emerging out of the soil.
August 22, 2017
Dorothy Woodend
The Tyee (British Columbia)
Ballast, if anything, is spellbound by location, and we all know what a spell will do.
June 14, 2016
Nathan Kosub
Stop Smiling
Worth seeing as an example of the lengths to which a filmmaker will go to establish his career – but don’t ever mistake it for sociology.
August 15, 2011
Kelly Vance
East Bay Express…
Plot
In the Atlantic during WW II, a ship and a German U-boat are involved in battle, and both are sunk. The survivors – from a variety of backgrounds -gather in one of the life boats. Trouble begins when they pull a man out of the water who turns out to be from the U-boa
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
There is no goofy or funny or odd comment about the film Ballast on Fresh Kernels.
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