While Sweet Country snakes along to an inevitable outcome, Thornton retains a sharp control over the movie’s ravishing visuals, assembling them with a rhythmic quality that transcends any specific time and place.

A gentle low-key comedy.

Tag, unlike too many of its recent ilk, at least bothers to be a movie, rather than a television sketch distended to feature length. The performers don’t seem to have been shoved in front of the camera and instructed to be funny. They have to work for their laughs, and to find coherence as an ensemble.

It’s more like the Brothers Grimm meets 13 Reasons Why, a perfect combination of childhood nightmares, teen angst, and adult drama.

The viewer must go along with Stephen on this strange and intimate journey because only by enduring the torture and confusion can the catharsis occur. There is hope, there is another side for those left behind, and for The Child in Time it is hard won, but builds to this conclusion deliberately and beautifully.

If you have a good idea, a strong cast, a smart script, and directorial chops, you don’t need a lot of money to make a compelling movie. The Endless is proof.