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The Independent Critic

STARRING
Craig T. Nelson, Brandon Sklenar, M. Emmet Walsh, Madison Lawlor, Charlie Berens
DIRECTED BY
Anders Lindwall
SCREENPLAY
Missy Mareau Garcia, Michael Graf, Anders Lindwall, Steven Shafer
MPAA RATING
NR
RUNNING TIME
103 Mins.
DISTRIBUTED BY
Fathom Events
OFFICIAL IMDB

 Movie Review: Green and Gold 
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We've loved Craig T. Nelson over the years. The Emmy Award-winning actor has enchanted us whether he was playing the dad in Poltergeist or the coach in the television series Coach or voicing none other than Mr. Incredible in The Incredibles. He first popped up in 1970 appearing in seven episodes of The Tim Conway Comedy Hour and he's simply one of those actors for whom you smile the minute you see him on screen. 

Nelson has always projected sublimely as the nice guy with a hint of an edge. In addition to his Emmy win for Coach, he's had two other Emmy nominations and has also been nominated for a Golden Globe on four occasions. Just this past year, he received the Heartland International Film Festival's Pioneering Spirit Award and charmed the crowd with everything we've come to love about him. 

As Buck in the Fathom Event release Green and Gold, Nelson is perfectly cast as a Wisconsin dairy farmer who, joined by granddaughter Jenny (Madison Lawlor), fights to save the family farm. If you've seen the ads for Green and Gold, you already know of the film's partnership with Wisconsin-based fast-food chain Culver's, where I just had dinner tonight, and also the Green Bay Packers. By now, you can likely already guess that Green and Gold is a love letter to the American farmer. 

In the film, Buck is drowning in debt and on the verge of losing his family's four-generation farm. Jenny stays loyal to the cause. She's a promising young woman who let go of college to stay on the farm she loves, though she also dreams of being a singer/songwriter and performs locally whenever she gets the chance. A meeting with Billy (Brandon Sklenar), an already accomplished musician, means that Jenny's likely going to have to make some choices. 

If you're wondering how the Green Bay Packers can figure in here, Buck's desperation leads to a bet with his mortgage company that his favorite team, I'll give you one guess, can make the Super Bowl. 

It's a weird bet. It's probably ill-advised. It's also the heart and soul of this remarkable gem of a film. 

I'm never quite sure about films like Green and Gold. They can go wrong so easily. Green and Gold never goes wrong partly because of Nelson's honest, engaging performance and partly because director Anders Lindwall has crafted this film with such a strong vision of what it needs to be that you can't help but fall in love with it. Nelson is both warm and winning here and an adorable curmudgeon. In some ways, Green and Gold reminded me of The Straight Story and yet in most ways it's still possessing of a story all its own. 

The film also features the final performance from the great M. Emmet Walsh, the longtime character actor with a couple hundred IMDB credits and nary a bad performance in any of them. I should likely mention Lawlor as well, whose musical talents are legit and given space to breathe here. The original music is perfectly in tune with the film's emotional rhythms and I'm still a bit teary-eyed every time I think of the song "Remind Me" from the film. 

Green and Gold is simply a lovely film. In a perfect world, it would find Nelson notching another award nomination. Of course, this kind of film is the kind of film that seldom snags mega box-office or critical acclaim. It's simply a good film brought beautifully to life by a terrific crew, an engaging ensemble, and a story that draws you in and makes you pay attention. Russ Fraser's lensing immerses us in this world where community matters, farmers are honored, and hope is hard-earned yet alive. Picked up by Fathom Events for distribution, Green and Gold is, indeed, a remarkable gem of a film. 

Written by Richard Propes
The Independent Critic