Basically this movie wraps up my emotions of being Charleston. I remember when I was about 8 or 9 years old, coming there and having the sudden impulse to cry. I watch this film and that same exact reaction starts to bubble up. Now that I have the chance to look back, I realize now that’s it’s because there is an absolute atmosphere of the mundane.

This movie is about factory workers, and I lived in the suburbs, but even going from house to house, observing my teachers, observing everything around me I was completely saturated with the idea that you can get stuck and never leave. That you can get riddled with anxiety, try to take the pills that don’t work and watch your whole life get snagged out of your hands. I knew people that took pleasures in the same small triumphs, I knew people with the same fears and the same aspirations. I had cousins, neighbors, friends, enemies, all of which could easily slip into this world.

And yet, the movie presents it in a way that doesn’t condescend, and doesn’t make these people to be utterly tragic. I feel that it’s one of the only movies I’ve ever seen that’s hit so close to home it’s deliciously uncomfortable. And at the same time I shame the rest of the movie-making world, with all its production budgets and big-name stars, for not being able to produce something that has the same feel, that’s able to place you somewhere instead of taking you or putting you somewhere. This is pure cinema at its best.