The audio is occupied by only the sounds the characters make ... moments of silence open up an emotional void.
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10/11/08
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Ballast (2008)
76 %
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 17
Fresh: 13
Rotten:4
Average Rating: 6.7/10
Runtime: 1 hr 36 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Winner of numerous prizes at prestigious film festivals all around the world, including Sundance, San Francisco, and Buenos Aires, BALLAST is a stunning, emotionally powerful feature-film debut from Lance Hammer, who wrote,... [More]
Starring: Michael J. Smith, JimMyron Ross, Tarra Riggs, Johnny McPhail
Director: Lance Hammer
Reviews for Ballast
1 - 17 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
It's an impressive directorial debut that will leave viewers speechless at the end--not necessarily in a good sense.
10/08/08
Ultimately, it's a satisfying character study, even if it ends much like far too many Romanian movies without a real conclusion or resolution.
10/03/08
Hammer's script is spare and pertinent, without a wasted syllable, giving his characters believable voices against the bleak and grey canvas of the Delta farmlands, stunningly photographed by Lol Crawley.
10/02/08
As the movie comes into focus, you feel the lives of the characters echoing backward through time.
10/01/08
Ballast (another Frozen River, wallowing in the miseries of the underclass) is designed to provoke bourgeois moviegoers’ pity.
10/01/08
Ballast is a serious achievement and a welcome sign of a newly invigorated American independent cinema.
10/01/08
Top Critic A slice-of-life adventure featuring a principal cast of non-professionals whose gritty naivete manage to imbue the production with a palpable sense of super-realism, even if in service of a Bill Cosby-infuriating display of black on black dysfunction.
09/30/08
Transports us headlong into the bleak lives of some residents in the Missippi Delta.
09/16/08
Stinging emotional truth and raw grit, stark in its simplicity. But captivating to behold, as these wounded lives flow into ours with all the natural, unassuming spontaneity of strangers we come to know and to care about enormously.
09/14/08
It's really just Indie Filmmaking 101; the hand-held shaky-cam work and jump-cutting go all the way back to Breathless (1959), if not a million other films.
06/07/08
Lance Hammer's Ballast suggests and suffers from the influence of the Dardenne brothers.
03/19/08
With spare and minimalist yet powerful strokes, Ballast, the feature debut of the gifted Lance Hammer, captures a slice of African American life in the Mississippi Delta in a way that recalls the early lyrical work of Charles Burnett (Killer of Sheep).
01/25/08
Top Critic1 - 17 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Latest News for Ballast
October 01, 2008:
Mississippi Delta serves as setting for monosyllabic meditation on gangbanging by moped. 
More...
September 21, 2008:
Trailer & Poster review
More...
January 28, 2008:
Frozen River, The Wackness Lead 2008 Sundance Winners
The dust has settled in Park City, and now that the votes have been counted and the hardware's been handed out, we can give you 2008's Sundance rundown! More...
Related Forums for Ballast
(2008)-Lance Hammer’s BALLAST will open theatrically on October 1st in NYC!!!
by: ReelReviewer.com 8/24
by: ReelReviewer.com 8/24
(2008)-Lance Hammer’s BALLAST will open theatrically on October 1st in NYC!!!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 7/8
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