BETTER THINGS Narrative Competition

“Real life was difficult, at best,” Gail reads to herself, a good summation of this exploration of people connected by their isolation. An agoraphobia, Gail keeps inside, escaping into romance novels. Mr. and Mrs. Gladwin find their 60-year relationship shifting. In her abiding love, Mrs. Gladwin tries to erode, with little gestures, the barriers built by the years of unspoken truths. Rob is a heroin addict who has just lost his girlfriend Tess (in an early scene, we see her lying in her neat, quiet house, needle in her arm). But where do you find solace after the death of a loved one if you, and all your friends, are addicts, too? A lush meditation on isolation and addiction in rural England, Duane Hopkins’s quiet film speaks volumes, delivering sharp insight into the lives of his characters. With raw, exacting performances by a mostly nonprofessional cast, BEDER THINGS wields fertile metaphors and a sophisticated sense of psychology. Hopkins penetrates the subtle process of human transformation and the possibilities for meaningful interchange lying dormant in contemporary country living . There are no shaky drug-fueled parties here. Instead, Hopkins immerses us inside each person’s loneliness. Lucid, articulate and breathtakingly poetic, BEDER THINGS is nothing short of masterful.