American Fable (2016) | A SXSW Film Review

This year’s South By Southwest Film Festival was an amazing collection of movies, documentaries, and short films, but of everything I saw nothing touched me as much as writer/director Anne Hamilton’s AMERICAN FABLE. Much of that is due to the powerhouse performance delivered by Peyton Kennedy, a young lady with a very bright future in movies. But, before I go too much into that, let’s talk about the film itself first.

AMERICAN FABLE is the story of a struggling family farm in the 1980s and the lengths they go to to save it and themselves. Kip Pardue and Marci Miller play parents who are struggling day to day just to keep food on the table, but hope arrives when Zuleikha Robinson’s Vera arrives and presents an opportunity to save their farm. What that will require, though, might be more than their family can bear. Gavin MacIntosh plays Martin, older brother to Peyton Kennedy’s Gitty, and while it would spoil things to explain his full roll, suffice it to say I haven’t hated a young male character this much since Joffrey Baratheon in HBO’s Game of Thrones. But, as much as I despised him, I loved Gitty. Peyton Kennedy isn’t even a teenager yet, but the power of her innocent wonder and open heart grant her a screen presence that most adult actors can’t even get close to. Yes, she’s that good. I can’t wait to see what she does next.

So far I’ve described the AMERICAN portion of the title, but what about the FABLE? Are there trolls under a bridge or talking rabbits? No, but through Gitty’s imagination we are treated to glimpses of something… other… on the farm, a figure on horseback that is as striking as it is incongruous with its surroundings. The visions are fleeting at first, with Gitty just as confused as the audience is to what is happening, but the longer the film rolls on the more fantastical her imaginings become, until finally you’re aren’t sure what’s real anymore. Sadly, by the time the end credits roll, as amazing as her visions are, they ultimately don’t contribute to the resolution of the story, nor do they really have much of an impact on anyone beyond Gitty. That might sound negative, but the power of the family drama is so strong and compelling that it carries the fable along with it effortlessly. I would have liked the fairytale aspects to be more up front and impactful, as it was with Guillermo del Toro’s PAN’S LABYRINTH (an influence Anne Hamilton self-professed during the after-movie Q&A), but that’s purely a personal desire.

AMERICAN FABLE is a beautiful film. The farm fields are lush, the sky expansive, and the brief forays into the fantastic sumptuous. Peyton Kennedy is the stand-out star of the film, but everyone else brings their A game as well. Hopefully it will get a world-wide release sooner rather than later, and when it does I highly recommend you see it. In the day and age of constant blockbusters rattling the walls of theaters everywhere, a slower and more thoughtful movie is desperately needed.

American Fable does not yet have a release date
Starring Peyton Kennedy, Kip Pardue, Marci Miller, and Gavin MacIntosh
Written and Directed by Anne Hamilton