Editor’s Observe: This evaluate was initially revealed throughout the 2025 Sundance Movie Pageant. Bleecker Avenue opens “Rebuilding” on November 14.
Loath as I’m to label something as “the film folks want proper now,” it’s onerous to think about Max Walker-Silverman’s “Rebuilding” in some other phrases for the time being. A spare however deeply felt sketch of a drama a couple of divorced Colorado rancher (a hangdog Josh O’Connor) making an attempt to make sense of what he’s obtained left within the wake of a devastating wildfire, the story is each bit as mild as the remainder of Walker-Silverman’s work (i.e. 2022’s “A Love Tune”), and but nonetheless trustworthy sufficient to reckon with the heartache of dropping one’s dwelling. Actually, it’s solely as a result of “Rebuilding” is so uncooked in its ache that it’s capable of resolve into such an successfully comforting balm; the movie begins with generations of reminiscence smoldering into 1,000 acres of scorched earth, and from the ashes rescues a brand new basis on which its characters would possibly credibly have the ability to create the following iteration of their lives.
The rancher is a person referred to as Dusty — no less than, that’s what he’s taken to calling himself. Makes him really feel like extra of a cowboy than “Thomas,” I assume. His grandparents constructed the cattle ranch the place he lived earlier than the fires, the one with the good view and the brilliant blue barn smack within the center. There was a time when Dusty’s ex-wife Ruby (Meghann Fahy) and their younger daughter Callie-Rose (Australian newcomer Lily LaTorre, an exquisite discover) lived there too, however that’s been over for some time now.
Ruby claims that he “didn’t apply himself,” however I think that Dusty simply didn’t apply himself sufficient to her and Callie-Rose; to guage by the silent anguish that sinks throughout O’Connor’s face on the cattle public sale that opens the movie, Dusty definitely appears to have been invested in his livestock. You’ll be able to all however see the life seeping out of him — or a life seeping out of him, anyway. “Are you able to even be a cowboy with out cows?,” somebody asks. Dusty isn’t so positive.
Even worse: He doesn’t have the slightest clue what else he is perhaps. Dusty is so married to a sure picture of himself that his first thought after the fireplace is to take a part-time ranching job just a few states away. Ruby and Callie-Rose reside the following city over from the place Dusty’s ranch as soon as stood, nevertheless it looks like being near his daughter isn’t an important a part of his self-identity — or to the household legacy he’s devoted himself to persevering with.
That can steadily start to alter as Dusty mourns what he’s misplaced perpetually and takes inventory of what he’s nonetheless obtained left. “You get what you get” is a standard chorus, a motto of kinds for Ruby’s live-in mom (Amy Madigan, beautiful in a job that proves a bit too handy for such a naturalistic script), and Dusty spends most of this film making an attempt to know his portion.
It doesn’t come simple to him. He strikes right into a trailer park on a FEMA campsite with roughly a dozen different individuals who misplaced their homes within the fireplace (a few of whom misplaced much more than that), and but none of Dusty’s new neighbors appear fairly as paralyzed by the entire ordeal. Not even Mila (an eminently plausible Kali Reis), whose husband bumped into the flames and by no means got here out.
Don’t maintain your breath for him to indicate up at a pivotal second — it’s clear from the opening twangs of Jake Xerxes Fussell’s tender acoustic rating that “Rebuilding” received’t be as action-packed as its title implies. Some films are verbs; this one is self-evidently a noun. Walker-Silverman prefers to precise his characters via texture quite than incident, and whereas it could be patently false to say that nothing “occurs” in his newest characteristic (not in a movie the place we repeatedly get to see Josh O’Connor work as a crossing guard for buffalo!), the story it tells is greatest outlined by what doesn’t.
Dusty doesn’t get a mortgage to rebuild the ranch, because the land received’t be farmable for no less than the following 10 years. He doesn’t intrude with Ruby’s present relationship, or do something to rewind the clock again to after they have been married. He doesn’t even unpack the cardboard containers in his trailer, as he simply can’t convey himself to simply accept that every one of this isn’t reversible in some way. Residence is meant to be perpetually — that’s what makes it dwelling. Even in the event you transfer, it’s presupposed to nonetheless be there.
However as Dusty begins to spend extra time with Callie-Rose — usually sitting within the car parking zone of the native library to allow them to siphon its wifi sign — and forging beneficiant friendships with the remainder of the displaced folks within the trailer park (performed by a heat and memorable assortment of non-professional actors, together with Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings musician Binky Griptite), “Rebuilding” accrues a long-lasting energy from all the impermanence that it collects alongside the best way. Even the movie’s most schematic moments make it really feel as if Walker-Silverman is solely unearthing one thing that was already there.
Madigan’s character spends most of her time reminding Dusty of what he’s forgotten, and to introduce trenchant particulars he could not have recognized. It’s due to her that Dusty has motive to replicate on his grandparents, who solely created the “perpetually dwelling” he’s so decided to rebuild as a result of they left Eire and began over themselves. And, in a very egregious scene that manages to outlive on the energy of its thematic weight, it’s due to her that Dusty is satisfied that reminiscence could be a legacy all its personal — one that may be re-seeded even when it appears like nothing else will ever take root once more.
“Rebuilding” incorporates quite a few essential moments that may appear particularly contrived in a movie the place the whole lot else is so unforced, however O’Connor’s implosive efficiency helps maintain the whole lot grounded to the earth. Whereas Fahy is tasked with a lot of the capital “A” Appearing right here (a process she pulls off with no false word), O’Connor might be present in nearly each body, usually staring on the dust or squinting on the horizon. There are occasions when it appears like Dusty is little greater than a cowboy hat searching for a personality, however O’Connor’s marble-mouthed uncertainty displays Dusty’s resistance to alter. It’s as if the man is so unwilling to think about a special future than the one he first envisioned that he can’t even get via a sentence if he doesn’t have the entire thing mapped out upfront.
O’Connor can do extra with a slight shake of his head than some actors might with a complete Shakespearean monologue, and “Rebuilding” isn’t extra nuanced or humane than when you possibly can really feel Dusty retreating from Mila and the opposite sort souls within the FEMA park, afraid that each step he took ahead would take him that a lot additional away from going again.
However Callie-Rose can’t assist however push towards that concept, if solely as a result of elevating a toddler — if we are able to name it that — is its personal type of rebuilding. And whereas Dusty isn’t the sort to confess this out loud, watching his daughter make new associates and lose valuable issues of her personal inevitably has a profound impact on him.
The actual fact is that life is nothing greater than a relentless collection of endings and beginnings; change is the one fixed, cliched as that may sound, and whereas “Rebuilding” stops properly wanting asking its characters to be thankful for their misfortune, a long-lasting sense of hope emerges from the chance they’re given to re-imagine what dwelling might imply.
How do you construct one thing that lasts in a world the place local weather change can, has, and can proceed to wipe centuries of historical past proper off the map? When the specter of one other tragic wildfire just isn’t a matter of “if,” however “when?” “It’s humorous,” somebody says, “the stuff you pack and the stuff you depart.” This quietly affecting little film finds actual poignancy in listening to what these issues are, and — finally — in forging them collectively in order that another person might need the present of mourning these ruins someday.
Grade: B+
“Rebuilding” premiered on the 2025 Sundance Movie Pageant. Bleecker Avenue opens the movie Friday, November 14.
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