Anywhere (dir. Adam Seidel)

By: Adam Freed

In times of life’s greatest crises, leaning on relatives is only natural.  The ability to turn to a partner or sibling in a time of need is what it means to be family.  But what is one supposed to do when it is those most closely related that are the cause of such great consternation?  For John, a rural Oklahoma oil rigger, the heartwrenching discovery that his wife and brother have been engaged in an extramarital affair, spins his stable reality completely off axis.  What ensues in writer and Director Adam Seidel’s crafty and compelling small-town thriller Anywhere is a Coen-esque character study on the impact of betrayal and the corrosive rage that lurks in its wake.  John’s response to the actions of his philandering brother Cody, in addition to his understandable desire to want to believe his wife Syd, places both characters into an ever tightening vise of their own design.

Veteran actor Joshua Burge (Relaxer, The Revenant) imbues John with a powerful combination of heartache and vengeance.  Vengeance for a brother’s betrayal, a wife’s dishonesty, but also for a life that has come to settle far below even his most meager of expectations.  The layers of hurt that Burge lends to John’s face earn a provisionally empathetic reaction for the unforeseen anguish he endures, a pain however that doesn’t warrant the intensity of his response. Performing opposite Joshua Burge is Hayley McFarland (The Conjuring, Lie to Me) who instills in Syd a slythery form of survivalist instinct that is a combination of narcissism and a desperate reach for upward mobility.  Syd is very much a throwback to the age of the femme fatale, a beautifully duplicitous and conniving character performed with subtlety by the gifted McFarland. John and Syd represent only the tip of the ensemble iceberg as they are joined by a convincing supporting cast that includes Sean Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy, Suicide Squad), Ryan Francis (The Getback, Sisters) and Mary Buss (Killers of the Flower Moon).

Adding to the allure of Adam Seidel’s throwback thriller is a patient cinematography that captures the hilly sunset expanse of the Oklahoma plains as a means of feel rather than a simplistic establishment of place.  Seidel has crafted his film with a meticulous level of detail regarding its presentation.  Anywhere looks and feels like a film transported from the 1970’s, an era in which the gritty depiction of people and places was mirrored by its grainy and tactile visual appearance.  Adam Seidel has crafted an independent gem in Anywhere.  A tale of lust, greed and darkness shrouded in a dusty veil of Oklahoma’s red clay, makes for one of the more memorable independent thrillers to roll down the road in quite some time.

Target Score 8.5/10 - With a Coen-like craft Director Adam Seidel tells the engaging story of a rural Oklahoma family torn apart by lust.  The frantic and perilous events that ensue render Anywhere a memorable small-town thriller seemingly originated in a bygone era of American filmmaking.