{"product_id":"ballast","title":"Ballast","description":"Product Description\n\nA double prize winner at the Sundance Film Festival and one of the most critically acclaimed films of 2008, Ballast is a stunningly evocative story of personal catastrophe and communal redemption. In the cold winter light of the Mississippi Delta, three lonely people stumble under the weight of a shared tragedy. Lawrence (Michael J. Smith, Sr.) is paralyzed with grief after the loss of his twin brother. Twelve-year-old James (Jim Myron Ross) drifts into the perilous orbit of local teenagers while his single mother, Marlee (Tarra Riggs), is too exhausted from menial job to interpret the clues. When sudden violence forces mother and son to flee their home in the night, they alight desperately on Lawrence's property. Though this provides safe harbor, it rekindles the fury of a bitter, longstanding conflict. Writer-director Lance Hammer and his gifted cast of local, non-professional actors have created an unflinching, profoundly humane story of lost souls forces by circumstance to seek solace in the most unlikely of places.\n\nReview\n\n4\/4 Stars. (Ballast) inexorably grows and deepens and gathers power and absorbs us. I always say I hardly ever cry at sad films, but I sometimes do, just a little, at films about good people. --Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times\n\nThere isn t much talk and not a drop of cynicism in (Ballast), Lance Hammer s austerely elegant, emotionally unadorned riff on life and death in the Mississippi Delta. Shot with a sure hand and a cast of unknowns, the film doesn t so much tell a story as develop a tone and root around a place that, despite the intimate camerawork, remains shrouded in ambiguity. ...It s a serious achievement and a welcome sign of a newly invigorated American independent cinema. --Manohla Dargis, The New York Times\n\nBALLAST has the heft and substance its name implies. A double prize winner at Sundance, this austere, rigorous film has a sense of place, a feeling for reality so compelling it makes us feel like we're living it, not just watching on a screen. --Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times\u003cbr\u003eASIN: B002PSLXP6\u003cbr\u003eVSKU: DBV.B002PSLXP6.G\u003cbr\u003eCondition: Good\u003cbr\u003eAuthor\/Artist:Tarra Riggs|Micheal J. Smith|JimMyron Ross|Lance Hammer|Johnny McPhail\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Dvd\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eNote:\u003c\/b\u003e Any images shown are stock photographs and product may differ from what is shown.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition Notes\u003c\/b\u003e: Individually inspected: Guaranteed to play perfectly or your money back. Case may show wear and may be in library packaging. Ships Fast!  \u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Dream Books Co.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41702131302458,"sku":"DBV.B002PSLXP6.G","price":19.35,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0555\/6011\/0138\/files\/B002PSLXP6-0.jpg?v=1790308702","url":"https:\/\/shop.dreambooksco.com\/products\/ballast","provider":"Dream Books Co.","version":"1.0","type":"link"}