Matt Shakman's "Cut Bank" is like the episode of "Twin Peaks" that got away; it's just too weird to dismiss out of hand and too lacking in substance to take seriously. I suppose you could describe it as American Gothic and its director did indeed direct an episode of that series and this too might have made a decent episode of a television series like "Fargo", (something else Shakman worked on), but there isn't enough here for a feature film despite a cast that includes Bruce Dern, John Malkovitch, Michael Stuhlbarg and Oliver Platt. It's also not helped in that the lead is Liam Hemsworth, arguably the least talented of that trio of acting brothers.
Cut Bank itself is one of those American small towns about the size of a pinhead and one the world has obviously forgotten about and where a murder can be inadvertently filmed without anyone really batting an eye. It's also the kind of place David Lynch would feel very much at home in. It's redeemed in part by Dern, Malkovitch and Stuhlbarg all at their daft best but God only knows what audience it was intended for; neither mainstream nor art-house, it might make for a passable midnight matinee.
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