‘Rebuilding’: Sundance Review

Dir: Max Walker-Silverman. US. 2025. 95 minutes.

This quietly hopeful Colorado-set drama unfolds within the wake of a devastating wildfire. A piece of refined however deep emotion, even the blaze is conveyed with minimalist magnificence as we see a handful of golden embers dance in opposition to the evening sky. Within the chilly mild of day blackened tree carcasses bear witness to the devastation, indicating the extent of an inferno that has additionally destroyed the ranch owned by cowboy Dusty (Josh O’Connor).

Timeless issues of group resilience

Set in opposition to the same rural backdrop to his debut movie A Love Track, which premiered at Sundance in 2022, Max Walker-Silverman returns to the pageant’s Premieres part with a movie that would scarcely have extra resonance within the wake of the calamitous fires which have ripped via Los Angeles. Well timed it might be however its enchantment to audiences and distributors additionally lies in its timeless issues of group resilience.

O’Connor is the headline forged identify, however Rebuilding is an ensemble piece through which even the smallest position counts. The British star continues his latest run of impressively eclectic performances, together with La Chimera and Challengers, and has no downside slipping quietly into the cowboy boots of Dusty, a person of few phrases, whose roots lie deep on this panorama however who now appears displaced from it.

Walker-Silverman provides his characters a sensible and lived-in sensibility, which suggests they behave like actual human beings. Although Dusty is now not together with his spouse Ruby (Meghann Fahy), who has taken their nine-year-old daughter Callie-Rose (Lily LaTorre) to reside together with her mum Bess (Amy Madigan) and new associate Robbie (Sam Engbring), she nonetheless cares about Dusty’s state of affairs and encourages him to reconnect together with his daughter.

Residing in a primary emergency caravan alongside a clutch of different unfortunate homeless locals on a scrap of land in the midst of nowhere, Dusty is reluctant to even take Callie-Rose there. However as quickly as he suggests the opposite residents are “not my actual neighbours” we all know all that’s set to alter. They’re a blended posse of all ages, gender preferences and attitudes, as befits these affected by an indiscriminate blaze. Chief amongst them is Mila (Kali Reis), who was widowed by the fireplace and who has a baby of comparable age to Callie-Rose.

Walker-Silverman takes this straightforward arrange and breathes it stuffed with intricate life, helped by the truth that there are many locals within the wider forged that lend the same sense of authenticity to the trailer park group as that seen in Chloe Zhao’s Nomadland.

Dusty could also be pressured to resist the truth that his dream of rebuilding is simpler mentioned than executed however on the similar time, Walker-Silverman is gently laying the foundations for reconstruction of a distinct kind. Now Dusty has the time for Callie-Rose he by no means had when his life revolved across the ranch and the pair start to show one another a factor or two, whether or not it’s easy methods to saddle a horse or flip the within of a trailer into an sudden galaxy of stars.

Relationships are much less constructed via dialogue than by way of small gestures, a foil-wrapped plate of leftovers talking volumes about caring for a neighbour, {a photograph} of grandparents a reminder of the sturdiness of households. All of the whereas, the acoustic guitar-driven rating from Jake Xerxes Fussell and James Elkington provides to the sense of place.

Walker-Silverman’s landscapes stay huge, nevertheless, continuously captured with a mellow magic-hour glow by Alfonso Herrera Salcedo, who additionally shot A Love Track. A distant lightning storm signifies nature is a drive to be reckoned with however in Walker-Silverman’s movies the power of empathetic human nature is proven to be simply as highly effective.