BOB AND THE TREES American Independents

Burning with a working-class authenticity as rare in contemporary American filmmaking as it is refreshing, writer-director Diego Ongaro’s absorbing debut feature tells the story of middle-aged logger Bob (first-time actor and real-life logger Bob Tarasuk, giving an extraordinary performance), who gambles his personal and professional livelihood on harvesting a piece of land that refuses to give him what he is so desperately counting on. Soon an already precarious situation is pushed into dark, uncharted emotional terrain. Capturing the austere beauty of the Berkshires in winter with crisp cinematography by Danny Vecchione and Chris Teague, BOB AND THE TREES is a film of rare honesty, a true rendering of the small moments that make up a life, of the daily joy of tending to livestock, of work anecdotes told around the dinner table, of booze-soaked camaraderie and barroom standoffs, of the welcome warmth of a midday kaffeeklatsch. — Cedar Sherbert