One of my biggest programming regrets came during the final year of the L.A. Film Festival when the selection committee decided that Eddie Mensore’s Mine 9 would not be world premiering at the festival. At the time, our decision-making process was correct, I have no doubts about that. But – it still stung, and I’ve thought about it ever since, and been quite open with my disappointment. Mine 9 was an effective potboiler about trapped miners, featuring a then unknown Drew Starkey, and utilizing non-actors to create as authentic a thriller as I’ve seen on screen. Hazard shares much in common with Mensore’s previous film, but showcases a major leap forward for the filmmaker in terms of his storytelling powers. I didn’t even know Mensore had a new film out until a former L.A. Film Fest programmer reached out specifically to let me know. He’s a major cinematic voice who deserves far more appreciation.
What separates Mensore from his peers is his distinct understanding of Appalachian culture, and the people who occupy spaces within it. Hazard lives and breathes this understanding, in its geography, the people who inhabit that geography, and the situations they find themselves in, and unable to escape. Hazard is both celebrating and bemoaning Appalachia. Most people don’t think of Kentucky when they think of the hardest hit areas by the opioid epidemic, but Kentucky and West Virginia share more in common than not, as states. The film even opens with some startling statistics that might seem difficult to believe until you’ve visited those areas for yourself. I grew up in Appalachia. I lived across the street from a meth dealer, down the road from a bootlegger, and watched a large number of my extended family members fall victim to the same opioid epidemic that powers the engine of Hazard.
Hazard tells the story of three very different people doing the best they can to grapple with the opioid crisis. Will (Alex Roe) is a drug dealing addict desperately trying to make amends with his girlfriend, Sara (Sosie Bacon) and their young son, while also enabling his father’s dangerous drug habits. Sara is a year sober and trying hard to stay on the straight and narrow; she loves Will, but also recognizes he’s bad for her sobriety and their son’s peace of mind. And then there’s John (Dave Davis), Sara’s brother and a local police officer who has made it his mission to do something about the drug problem that is killing his hometown. When a teenage girl overdoses on pills sold to her by Will, the paths of our three central characters become more and more entangled, which is the only place where Hazard loses its way a bit. When it’s purely a character study, it sings. When it tries to add narrative devices, it starts to feel forced.
Across the board, the performances here are staggering. I mostly know actor Alex Roe from films like Rings and The 5th Wave, awful pictures that did nothing for him. As “Will”, he’s a revelation, ditching all of his British-isms and creating a sympathetic and miserable character that just feels like 100 people I grew up with. His physicality and mannerisms are all on point, and he feels like he could be a non-actor plucked right out of the region. Sosie Bacon continues to showcase her wide range of talents here, turning “Sara” into the most tragic figure in the entire picture. And then there’s Dave Davis, an actor I’ve adored since I first saw him in the criminally underrated, Bomb City. This guy just has it. Always has. There’s such a sincerity to everything he does on screen, whether he’s playing an Orthodox Jew in The Vigil or an obsessive cop in Hazard. He’s one of the finest actors working today, full stop.
Despite a shaggy final act that leans too heavily into mechanics, Hazard is an emotionally charged, utterly bleak depiction of a community, and country, in crisis. Both its head and its heart are in the right place, and Mensore deserves a much larger canvas on which to paint his next mini-masterpiece. We don’t get enough authentic pictures dealing with drug addiction in this country, particularly in the rural south. Cook County has always been the shining example, the David Pomes film from 2009 starring Anson Mount. Now, Hazard has come along to give it a run for its money. But, of all the things I will remember about this film, it’s Alex Roe’s performance that keeps coming back to me – the vulnerability; the energy; the sadness. So many folks in Appalachia find themselves trapped by their circumstances and have nowhere to go but around and around. This film is about them, and for them.
RATING: ****/***** (now available to rent/buy on VOD)
