Loath as I’m to label something as “the film individuals want proper now,” it’s onerous to consider Max Walker-Silverman’s “Rebuilding” in some other phrases for the time being. A spare however deeply felt sketch of a drama a couple of divorced Colorado rancher (a hangdog Josh O’Connor) attempting to make sense of what he’s obtained left within the wake of a devastating wildfire, the story is each bit as mild as the remainder of Walker-Silverman’s work (i.e. 2022’s “A Love Tune”), and but nonetheless trustworthy sufficient to reckon with the heartache of dropping one’s house. The truth is, it’s solely as a result of “Rebuilding” is so uncooked in its ache that it’s in a position to resolve into such an successfully comforting balm; the movie begins with generations of reminiscence smoldering into 1,000 acres of scorched earth, and from the ashes rescues a brand new basis on which its characters would possibly credibly be capable to create the subsequent iteration of their lives.
The rancher is a person known as Dusty — at the very least, that’s what he’s taken to calling himself. Makes him really feel like extra of a cowboy than “Thomas,” I assume. His grandparents constructed the cattle ranch the place he lived earlier than the fires, the one with the good view and the intense blue barn smack within the center. There was a time when Dusty’s ex-wife Ruby (Meghann Fahy) and their younger daughter Callie-Rose (Australian newcomer Lily LaTorre, a beautiful discover) lived there too, however that’s been over for some time now.
Ruby claims that he “didn’t apply himself,” however I believe that Dusty simply didn’t apply himself sufficient to her and Callie-Rose; to evaluate by the silent anguish that sinks throughout O’Connor’s face on the cattle public sale that opens the movie, Dusty actually appears to have been invested in his livestock. You possibly can all however see the life seeping out of him — or a life seeping out of him, anyway. “Are you able to even be a cowboy with out cows?,” somebody asks. Dusty isn’t so positive.
Even worse: He doesn’t have the slightest clue what else he is likely to be. Dusty is so married to a sure picture of himself that his first thought after the fireplace is to take a part-time ranching job a number of states away. Ruby and Callie-Rose dwell the subsequent city over from the place Dusty’s ranch as soon as stood, however it looks as if being near his daughter isn’t a vital a part of his self-identity — or to the household legacy he’s devoted himself to persevering with.
That can regularly start to vary as Dusty mourns what he’s misplaced ceaselessly and takes inventory of what he’s nonetheless obtained left. “You get what you get” is a standard chorus, a motto of types for Ruby’s live-in mom (Amy Madigan, pretty in a task that proves a bit too handy for such a naturalistic script), and Dusty spends most of this film attempting to know his portion.
It doesn’t come straightforward to him. He strikes right into a trailer park on a FEMA campsite with roughly a dozen different individuals who misplaced their homes within the fireplace (a few of whom misplaced much more than that), and but none of Dusty’s new neighbors appear fairly as paralyzed by the entire ordeal. Not even Mila (an eminently plausible Kali Reis), whose husband bumped into the flames and by no means got here out.
Don’t maintain your breath for him to point out up at a pivotal second — it’s clear from the opening twangs of Jake Xerxes Fussell’s tender acoustic rating that “Rebuilding” gained’t be as action-packed as its title implies. Some films are verbs; this one is self-evidently a noun. Walker-Silverstein prefers to precise his characters by way of texture quite than incident, and whereas it could be patently false to say that nothing “occurs” in his newest function (not in a movie the place we repeatedly get to see Josh O’Connor work as a crossing guard for buffalo!), the story it tells is greatest outlined by what doesn’t.
Dusty doesn’t get a mortgage to rebuild the ranch, because the land gained’t be farmable for at the very least the subsequent 10 years. He doesn’t intervene with Ruby’s present relationship, or do something to rewind the clock again to once they have been married. He doesn’t even unpack the cardboard bins in his trailer, as he simply can’t deliver himself to just accept that each one of this isn’t reversible in some way. House is meant to be ceaselessly — that’s what makes it house. Even should you transfer, it’s imagined to nonetheless be there.
However as Dusty begins to spend extra time with Callie-Rose — usually sitting within the car parking zone of the native library to allow them to siphon its wifi sign — and forging beneficiant friendships with the remainder of the displaced individuals within the trailer park (performed by a heat and memorable assortment of non-professional actors, together with Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings musician Binky Griptite), “Rebuilding” accrues a long-lasting energy from all the impermanence that it collects alongside the best way. Even the movie’s most schematic moments make it really feel as if Walker-Silverman is solely unearthing one thing that was already there.
Madigan’s character spends most of her time reminding Dusty of what he’s forgotten, and to introduce trenchant particulars he could not have recognized. It’s due to her that Dusty has motive to replicate on his grandparents, who solely created the “ceaselessly house” he’s so decided to rebuild as a result of they left Eire and began over themselves. And, in a very egregious scene that manages to outlive on the power of its thematic weight, it’s due to her that Dusty is satisfied that reminiscence generally is a legacy all its personal — one that may be re-seeded even when it seems like nothing else will ever take root once more.
“Rebuilding” incorporates various essential moments which may appear particularly contrived in a movie the place every thing else is so unforced, however O’Connor’s implosive efficiency helps hold every thing grounded to the earth. Whereas Fahy is tasked with a lot of the capital “A” Performing right here (a activity she pulls off with no false be aware), O’Connor will be present in just about each body, usually staring on the filth or squinting on the horizon. There are occasions when it seems like Dusty is little greater than a cowboy hat in quest of a personality, however O’Connor’s marble-mouthed uncertainty displays Dusty’s resistance to vary. It’s as if the man is so unwilling to think about a distinct future than the one he first envisioned that he can’t even get by way of a sentence if he doesn’t have the entire thing mapped out prematurely.
O’Connor can do extra with a slight shake of his head than some actors might with a whole Shakespearean monologue, and “Rebuilding” is rarely extra nuanced or humane than when you possibly can really feel Dusty retreating from Mila and the opposite sort souls within the FEMA park, afraid that each step he took ahead would take him that a lot additional away from going again.
However Callie-Rose can’t assist however push towards that concept, if solely as a result of elevating a toddler — if we are able to name it that — is its personal type of rebuilding. And whereas Dusty isn’t the kind to confess this out loud, watching his daughter make new buddies and lose valuable issues of her personal inevitably has a profound impact on him.
The very fact is that life is nothing greater than a relentless collection of endings and beginnings; change is the one fixed, cliched as which may sound, and whereas “Rebuilding” stops nicely wanting asking its characters to be glad about their misfortune, a long-lasting sense of hope emerges from the chance they’re given to re-imagine what house might imply.
How do you construct one thing that lasts in a world the place local weather change can, has, and can proceed to wipe centuries of historical past proper off the map? When the specter of one other tragic wildfire will not be a matter of “if,” however “when?” “It’s humorous,” somebody says, “the stuff you pack and the stuff you depart.” This quietly affecting little film finds actual poignancy in being attentive to what these issues are, and — in the end — in forging them collectively in order that another person might need the present of mourning these ruins someday.
Grade: B+
“Rebuilding” premiered on the 2025 Sundance Movie Competition. It’s presently in search of U.S. distribution.
Wish to keep updated on IndieWire’s movie opinions and important ideas? Subscribe right here to our newly launched e-newsletter, In Assessment by David Ehrlich, by which our Chief Movie Critic and Head Critiques Editor rounds up one of the best new opinions and streaming picks together with some unique musings — all solely out there to subscribers.