Red Dirt

Drama

Karen Black	Aunt Summer
Dan Montgomery
Aleksa Palladino	Emily Whaley
Peg O'Keef	Lynn Thomas
Walton Goggins	Lee Todd
Dan Montgomery Jr.	Griffith Joseph Burns
Walt Goggins	Lee Todd
Jo-Ann Robinson	Customer in shop
Glenn Shadix	Virgil Cunningham
John Mese	Bill Thomas

Director	Tag Purvis
Producer	Cyril Bijaoui; Sean Gibbons; Cyril Cijaoui
Writer	Tag Purvis

Red Dirt opens with lush images of rain-drenched faces and half-naked bodies lying entwined against the gnarled roots of a tree. Slowly, the movie unwinds the story of Griffith (Dan Montgomery), a young man who feels trapped in a small Southern town by the madness of his invalid aunt (Karen Black). His only comfort is his secret affair with his cousin Emily (Aleksa Palladino), but even that begins to lose its meaning. When a stranger (Walton Goggins) seeks to rent a cottage on Griffith's property, they strike up a friendship that offers Griffith the possibility of escape. At first, Red Dirt threatens to drown in the tortured emotions of a Southern gothic novel, but the excellent performances slowly build a rich, affecting web of hope and passion. Palladino, a young beauty with amazingly thick red hair, is particularly striking. --Bret Fetzer