A Love Song

Even at a mere 80 minutes, it feels overlong but this is undeniably a good showcase for Dickey and Studies.

Dale Dickey gets the role of a lifetime and knocks it out of the park in a subtly moving feature debut from Max Walker-Silverman. There's not a lot on the page and at 82 minutes it feels stretched, but the story is one about love and loss and living told near perfectly. The film is nothing without the steady presence of Dickey. It is, in fact, carried by her sheer will. It is one of the finest performances I've seen in recent memory and in a fair world would be up for major award consideration. There is a through line of the radio knows what song to play for the moment. That worked for me, but it is a gimmick for sure. If you give in you will feel the emotion. Final Score: 7/10

This was a stunning little piece of perfection. The first act had me with its light and its gorgeous, wonderful, very sweet and human characters, just setting the stage for the reunion. And then the middle act had me sighing and weeping and yearning, with the centerpiece midpoint an imperfectly perfect showstopper. It occurred to me then that this isn't really a comedy, despite all its lightness and movibg if spare and airy romance. It's a journey and it's about wisdom. And then act three's hiking scenes peacefully but brazenly take us close to both immense beauty and despair. It's definitely in my top five movies from 2022. Such poetry and and cinematography. Such excellent performances. Dale Dickey has my heart.

You've no doubt seen Dale Dickey before. She's been in a ton of movies, but this is her first starring role. Here she plays Faye, a weathered, middle-aged woman whose face tells you she's had a hard life and witnessed a lot of things. We first see her emerging from her camper, which is parked behind a pickup truck in a desolate stretch of land in the Colorado mountains. She pulls a trap out of the nearby lake and removes several crawdads, which she proceeds to cook and eat. It's part of her daily routine and we take this in stride. One day four cowboys and a young girl visit her. They're lined up with their shovels in hand. The young girl takes a few steps forward and speaking for the group, formally asks Faye if she could move her camper. It seems they buried a relative under her camping spot, and now that there's an oilrig nearby, they'd like to dig him up and transfer him to site with a nicer view. Faye tells the girl she's waiting for a visitor at this specific campsite and they politely leave. This scene had a Wes Anderson feel to it, and I was almost expecting the movie to take a surreal, goofy turn. Wrong. While Faye is alone most of the time, we never get the feeling she's lonely. She seems very content waiting for her mysterious guest. When a couple of women at a nearby campsite invite her for dinner, she gladly accepts. Sitting around the campfire, they tell her they were going to propose to each other. It was supposed to happen a couple National Parks ago, and they keep on postponing the inevitable. It's a sweet scene and it makes Fay wonder what might have been. Finally, a car pulls up and we discover whom she's been waiting for. It's Lito (Wes Studi), a gentleman her age, and his dog. We learn they knew each other as kids but lost touch over the years. We also learn that they've each lost a spouse. The couple seems a bit awkward at first, but soon develop a calm, mannered cadence with their conversations. They reminisce about their grade school and high school years together. And they briefly argue about who tried to kiss whom back in the day. One reoccurring theme in the film is Faye's transistor radio. It's an old-fashioned, battery-operated model that she turns on from time to time. She fiddles with the dial and magically the radio knows the perfect tune for the moment. They're always full of melancholy, and seem to be making a statement about the quiet grandeur of a simpler time in America that's largely been lost. It's a charming and subtle little touch to a beautifully sad story. Faye and Lito feel comfortable with each other, even though they haven't been in contact for years. They play guitars and sing together. Share a meal and ice cream cones. And just reminisce. At one point Lito asks her how she spends her days and she tells him, "There's days and there's nights, and I got a book for each." On a shelf in her camper there are two books—a field guide to birds and a guide to the constellations. That perfectly sums up her existence. A Love Song is a superbly crafted, sweet and thoughtful film that feels almost like a poem. It's won a number of well-deserved international awards and is the directing and writing debut of Max Walker-Silverman. I'm looking forward to seeing more from this promising young man.

Beautiful in its sparseness. It equates the seemingly barren landscape (which is alive with birds and stars) to two 60 something adults who may look old but are really just two teenagers wanting to stay alive. it was so poignant it made this Texan cry.

Moving and subtle. A wonderful treasure made of superb dialogs and wonderful characters.

Excellent casting! Understated and moving, soundtrack accompanied the story so well! Enjoyable, simple and very human. A rear treat!

This movie provokes feelings and connection through its simplicity. The actors create organic characters and the scenery provides the tone. For me the music is as part of the story as everything else, chosen especially as a guide to what is happening in the story. A quietly engaging amovie which was very much welcomed.

As the clock of life ticks by, many of us begin to look back on our lives in terms of the opportunities we pursued and the regrets we hold over those we didn't. Those are the primary themes explored in writer-director Max Walker-Silverman's debut feature about a pair of childhood friends (Dale Dickey, Wes Studi) who reunite after many years apart at a remote Colorado campground. Their time together gives them a chance to reflect upon their lives, their memories and the loves they both lost. But where do they go from here now that they've reconnected? This tender, bittersweet arm's-length romance has its moments of humor, compassion and joyful reunion, as well as its elements of stilted awkwardness and protracted hesitation, reflecting the ambiguity the two principals are feeling after their long separation. It makes for some interesting dynamics set against the beautifully photographed backdrop of the Western wilderness. However, despite these strengths, the script feels a little thin with an underdeveloped narrative and back story, issues that are slightly exacerbated by the picture's slow but tolerable pacing. While it's true this offering proves that a film doesn't always need a complex, densely packed screenplay chock full of dramatic heft to be effective, it nevertheless seems that "A Love Song" could have benefitted from a little more substance. Still, this one has its merits, having deservedly earned Independent Spirit Award nominations for Dickey's lead performance and as a candidate for the competition's John Cassavettes Award. This is the kind of film that makes a good choice for a cozy weekend afternoon while curled up on the couch, and, thankfully, its economical 1:21:00 runtime is just long enough to make it enjoyable without becoming tedious – a nice little diversion without becoming tiresome.

Dale Dickey gives an outstanding performance in a beautiful love story with so much wisdom.