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| Scene from The Ballad of Lefty Brown |
In case you didn't know, A24 is one of the great purveyors of modern cinema. Since 2013, the studio has found a way to innovate independent cinema by turning each release into an event. As a result, A24 A-to-Z will be an ongoing series that looks at every release from the studio by analyzing its production history, release, criticisms, and any awards attention that it might've received. Join me on a quest to explore the modern heroes of cinema by exploring every hit and miss that comes with that magnificent logo. They may not all be great, but they more than make A24 what it is and what it will hopefully continue to be for years to come.
Released: December 15, 2017
Release Number: 60
Directed By: Jared Moshe
Starring: Bill Pullman, Peter Fonda, Stephen Alan Seder
Plot: A thrilling and action-packed Western, The Ballad of Lefty Brown is a story about loyalty, friendship, and the relentless pursuit of justice.
Over the course of 2017, A24 had another fantastic year with a selection of movies that captured the zeitgeist with intimate ghost stories (A Ghost Story) and some of the oddest Oscar nominees yet (Lady Bird, The Disaster Artist, The Florida Project). Whatever could be said about them, they were now an institution and planned to end the year on a high note. With a western starring Bill Pullman, the studio returned to their roots of releasing oddball westerns. This time, they tackled the mythology behind the genre with director Jared Moshe's loving tribute that not only deconstructs what is known, but seeks to look beyond cynicism. The Ballad of Lefty Brown may not be the flashiest of westerns, but it does plenty as a serviceable entry with plenty of humor, excellent performances, and beautiful cinematography.
For Moshe, he claimed that the idea spun from one of cinema's most famous sidekicks: Walter Brennan. He was always a figure that was laughed at but was always reliable in a pinch. Among his biggest influences was the John Wayne vehicle Rio Bravo where Brennan ends up saving the day. With this in mind, he began to conceive of a story that explored what it meant to be a third wheel. Basically, what did it mean to be someone who didn't get recognition for their contributions. He did so by casting Lefty Brown as a protagonist looking for revenge for his fallen colleague. It's a story that attempts to explore a figure that would later be written about in books and comics as this mythic figure. Lefty Brown was a hero in his own right, but the film sought to portray him in a realistic fashion.
Moshe would then look for places to shoot the film but found it a bit difficult. When he attended an event where the Montana filming commission was also at, he began to discuss opportunities with them. This lead to scouting areas that convinced Moshe that this was the right place. After getting a place to live while shooting the film in Bannack (also where the final scene is shot), everything else was put into motion. Pullman came along fairly easily, believing that there was a lot to explore in the character. He also claims that he got the inspiration for his character's posture from a Vietnamese woman he saw walking around. He decided to discuss with her ways to convey his posturing in a believable way, which was only achieved after her daughter convinced the doubting mother that the actor had good intentions.
The film would premiere at South by South West, which in part was because of the location. Moshe believed that he wanted the film to premiere in the areas where the story took place, in Texas. This was also where A24 and DirecTV would acquire the distribution rights. It felt ideal and lead to positive reviews. While there's no box office statistics for the film with a budget of $8 million, what was known is that there were sold out screenings in Whitehall, Montana, which was near where the filming was shot. These events alone raised over $10,000 towards historical preservation efforts by the Jefferson Valley Museum. While the film flew under the radar elsewhere, it was a sign that the film still appealed to those looking for enjoyable western films late in 2017. It may have been one of the studio's smaller films, but it still made an impression on its target audience.
The Ballad of Lefty Brown also did fairly well on critics aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes where it earned a healthy 79%. Mark Jenkins of NPR lead to positive reviews by noting that "Jared Moshe, the writer and director of The Ballad of Lefty Brown, is a fan of classic Westerns and he's made a movie that should please fellow aficionados." Glenn Kenny of Roger Ebert.com also added "Pullman is always great to watch." The few that disagreed tended to side with Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of A.V. Club, who was less impressed when noting "Despite the novel twist of making a stock supporting character like Lefty the unlikely focus of the story, Lefty Brown's ambitions remain as modest and muddled as its dirty earth-tone color palette." With positive enough reviews, the film was considered a minor success for the studio and showed that there was still a need for the genre. While this is true, the film was one of the least performing films of the A24 Fall line-up, failing to earn major nominations or any considerable box office.
While it wasn't the triumphant conclusion to 2017 that films like Lady Bird and The Disaster Artist achieved, it was still a memorable entry that also marked the studio's 60th release. With a great cast and crew working passionately on the film, the western genre was still alive at A24 and would hopefully lead to many more in the years to come. For now, 2018 was on the horizon and it was time to start the cycle all over again of oddball early season releases. The Vanishing of Sydney Hall would definitely qualify as such, even if it marked the first of two Elle Fanning reunions with the studio that would come in the year ahead. It would be the start of one of the studio's rockiest years since its induction, but there would definitely be plenty of great moments ahead.
Up Next: The Vanishing of Sydney Hall (2018)
Over the course of 2017, A24 had another fantastic year with a selection of movies that captured the zeitgeist with intimate ghost stories (A Ghost Story) and some of the oddest Oscar nominees yet (Lady Bird, The Disaster Artist, The Florida Project). Whatever could be said about them, they were now an institution and planned to end the year on a high note. With a western starring Bill Pullman, the studio returned to their roots of releasing oddball westerns. This time, they tackled the mythology behind the genre with director Jared Moshe's loving tribute that not only deconstructs what is known, but seeks to look beyond cynicism. The Ballad of Lefty Brown may not be the flashiest of westerns, but it does plenty as a serviceable entry with plenty of humor, excellent performances, and beautiful cinematography.
For Moshe, he claimed that the idea spun from one of cinema's most famous sidekicks: Walter Brennan. He was always a figure that was laughed at but was always reliable in a pinch. Among his biggest influences was the John Wayne vehicle Rio Bravo where Brennan ends up saving the day. With this in mind, he began to conceive of a story that explored what it meant to be a third wheel. Basically, what did it mean to be someone who didn't get recognition for their contributions. He did so by casting Lefty Brown as a protagonist looking for revenge for his fallen colleague. It's a story that attempts to explore a figure that would later be written about in books and comics as this mythic figure. Lefty Brown was a hero in his own right, but the film sought to portray him in a realistic fashion.
Moshe would then look for places to shoot the film but found it a bit difficult. When he attended an event where the Montana filming commission was also at, he began to discuss opportunities with them. This lead to scouting areas that convinced Moshe that this was the right place. After getting a place to live while shooting the film in Bannack (also where the final scene is shot), everything else was put into motion. Pullman came along fairly easily, believing that there was a lot to explore in the character. He also claims that he got the inspiration for his character's posture from a Vietnamese woman he saw walking around. He decided to discuss with her ways to convey his posturing in a believable way, which was only achieved after her daughter convinced the doubting mother that the actor had good intentions.
The film would premiere at South by South West, which in part was because of the location. Moshe believed that he wanted the film to premiere in the areas where the story took place, in Texas. This was also where A24 and DirecTV would acquire the distribution rights. It felt ideal and lead to positive reviews. While there's no box office statistics for the film with a budget of $8 million, what was known is that there were sold out screenings in Whitehall, Montana, which was near where the filming was shot. These events alone raised over $10,000 towards historical preservation efforts by the Jefferson Valley Museum. While the film flew under the radar elsewhere, it was a sign that the film still appealed to those looking for enjoyable western films late in 2017. It may have been one of the studio's smaller films, but it still made an impression on its target audience.
The Ballad of Lefty Brown also did fairly well on critics aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes where it earned a healthy 79%. Mark Jenkins of NPR lead to positive reviews by noting that "Jared Moshe, the writer and director of The Ballad of Lefty Brown, is a fan of classic Westerns and he's made a movie that should please fellow aficionados." Glenn Kenny of Roger Ebert.com also added "Pullman is always great to watch." The few that disagreed tended to side with Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of A.V. Club, who was less impressed when noting "Despite the novel twist of making a stock supporting character like Lefty the unlikely focus of the story, Lefty Brown's ambitions remain as modest and muddled as its dirty earth-tone color palette." With positive enough reviews, the film was considered a minor success for the studio and showed that there was still a need for the genre. While this is true, the film was one of the least performing films of the A24 Fall line-up, failing to earn major nominations or any considerable box office.
While it wasn't the triumphant conclusion to 2017 that films like Lady Bird and The Disaster Artist achieved, it was still a memorable entry that also marked the studio's 60th release. With a great cast and crew working passionately on the film, the western genre was still alive at A24 and would hopefully lead to many more in the years to come. For now, 2018 was on the horizon and it was time to start the cycle all over again of oddball early season releases. The Vanishing of Sydney Hall would definitely qualify as such, even if it marked the first of two Elle Fanning reunions with the studio that would come in the year ahead. It would be the start of one of the studio's rockiest years since its induction, but there would definitely be plenty of great moments ahead.
Up Next: The Vanishing of Sydney Hall (2018)
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