Supporters of independent filmmaking helped fund Sean Williamson’s Heavy Hands through Kickstarter.
His film will have a local premiere on Sunday, February 10th at 7 P.M. Following a December showing in Milwaukee, the film will be screened at here in Sommers Theater at UW-Whitewater.
Heavy Hands tells the story of “anti-hero Jimmy Lee as he deals with the ramifications of a careless and selfish act. Set in a cold and dangerous country climate, Heavy Hands is funny, sad and sexy.”
Film critic Matt Wild, writing at the AV Club, offers praise for Williamson’s work:
Though only an hour long, Heavy Hands tells its story at a leisurely pace, finding time for picturesque respites and unexpected cameos from the The Royal Tenenbaums’ Kumar Pallana and Milwaukee’s own Mark Borchardt and Frankie Latina. (Milwaukee groups Jaill, Hello Death, Hot Coffin, and Altos provide the soundtrack.) The film’s cinematography—handheld and mostly utilitarian—owes a debt to the earlier work of Jim Jarmusch, though a few scenes, like Jimmy’s fateful camping trip and a walk through a haunted house, are surprisingly lyrical. But it’s the film’s experimental, avant-garde bent that leaves the greatest impression. Heavy Hands may bill itself as cowpoke crime drama full of bleak landscapes and tortured souls, but, like all good experimental films, it’s really about the power of film—honest-to-God film—itself.
An extended trailer appears immediately below: