Jeff Rutherford: Last News

Guy Lodge Film CriticA cemetery is not an auspicious choice of rendezvous point for an estranged father and son arranging what might be one last meeting in “A Perfect Day for Caribou,” but the dry joke of Jeff Rutherford’s tender, affectingly reserved first feature is that things get more melancholic still when they leave its glum confines. Set over the course of a single day on the fringes of some dead American anytown, this at once quiet and talkative two-hander covers no especially new ground, but strides known territory with a keen eye for lonesome landscapes, and an ear for the eternal communicative impasse felt by men who know each other all too well and not at all. Sturdy, thoughtful performances from Jeb Berrier and, in particular, rising star Charlie Plummer should hook distributor interest in this low-key indie following its premiere in Locarno’s newcomer-oriented Cineasti de Presente strand.

Locarno Film Festival, the film portraits an extended encounter between Herman (Jeb Berrier) and his son, Nate (Charlie Plummer). They grapple with their relationship against a vast landscape as they spend the day meandering across great meadows, trudging through a graveyard – navigating the intimate geographies of their own grief.