Directed by Julian Higgins
Written by Julian Higgins and Shaye Ogbonna
Starring Thandiwe Newton, Joris Jarsky, Jefferson White
Rated R for language
Runtime: 1 hour 42 minutes
In theaters September 16

by Ryan Silberstein, Managing Editor, Red Herring

Can you win playing by the rules? It depends on who you are. At least in America, you can win by being born a white dude. This is even more true in the wide open spaces of the West, where social norms are more real than law and order. In God’s Country, the local sheriff has two officers to cover 300 square miles of land (and one is on administrative leave). The local community is bonded via homogeneity, sharing the same skin color, and their leaders all sharing the same gender. It only adds to the isolating effect of the mountainous, sparsely populated landscape. 

Sandra (Thandiwe Newton) has placed herself in this situation willingly. In her previous life, she was a New Orleans cop before Katrina dissolved her illusions that those in power cared about her people. Taking a tenure-track position at a small rural college, she relocated her and her mother there, only to find herself facing power structures everyday. She’s one of few women in the school faculty, and the only one who isn’t white.

Her professional life is rewarding, as she focuses on helping her students face their fears of public speaking, as well as help them with their grief. However, it is also frustrating as she tries to push for more diverse faculty members and seek justice for students that are wronged. After her mother has passed away, her personal life is lonelier than ever. “What’s the point of you?” is asked of her, as if she has to prove her right to exist in this land. 

From the film’s first challenge to Sandra–a pair of hunters park their truck on her land without asking–we see her frustration begin to mount. She is assertive, and turns to law enforcement when standing up for herself is ignored. But assertiveness, often with an implied deadly weapon, is the only form of backup in such a remote area. As Sandra tries to take things one day at a time, and even try to find common ground with those who try to dismiss her, the forces that want to push her off her land begin to seem insurmountable, and conflict begins to feel inevitable for her. 

God’s Country is a solid debut feature from Julian Higgins, and deftly parlays Newton's performance into a cudgel about respectability politics (more on that later). The script’s biggest flaw is trying to layer one too many pieces of backstory into a taut narrative that doesn’t need it, but the attempt at rounding out so many of its characters is a noble one. But at the very least, the ending does provide a kind of catharsis. One of my favorite aspects of the film is the use of expansive landscapes. Sometimes they make the characters feel small and insignificant, a reminder that the mountains were here before humans and will be long after, to paraphrase one of them. But the environment is most effective as an isolating element. Having gone hiking in rural Pennsylvania during deer season, hearing a gunshot when you can’t see any people is stressful and it takes an inordinate amount of trust that hunters are shooting safely. So the moment where Sandra is hearing hunters while she is in her yard chopping wood is an excellent way that Higgins uses a sense of realism to elevate tension. 

All of this is perfectly captured by Thandiwe Newton’s arresting performance. She doesn’t make any big speeches to convey her growing anger, but it is plain on her face. When so many of the white men she interacts with refuse to acknowledge they’ve done anything wrong, or even listen to her concerns, Newton makes it apparent that underneath Sandra’s quiet demeanor is a pool of rage. While not much about God’s Country is subtle, the way it depicts respectability politics is its finest and most cutting edge. Yes, there are larger systemic issues at play, but it would be easier for Sandra to hear the white male professors on the hiring committee outright say that recommending a person of color to join the faculty isn’t a priority for them, rather than hide behind saying they just want “the best candidate” they can find. It shouldn’t be Sandra’s job to explain why that perpetuates inequality, and there’s only so many times a person in her position is even up for trying to communicate that. But here she is, trying to speak up even as her white female colleagues acquiesce to the male-dominated culture.

When there are so few “acceptable” outlets for rage, art can remain one of the few. Seeing Thandiwe Newton stand her ground and command the central narrative of a snowy neo-western is the best reason to watch, and a reminder that she’s allowed to be wherever she wants to be.