Ain’t Them Bodies Saints

Writer/director David Lowery’s film is a darkly romantic outlaw love ballad set in the harsh, flat, scrubby landscapes of the Texas outback. A small-time thief (Casey Affleck) imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit escapes in hopes of rejoining his beloved (Rooney Mara) and the baby daughter he’s never seen. A sternly supportive father figure (Keith Carradine) and an unexpectedly sympathetic deputy (Ben Foster) get involved in the increasingly convoluted chase that results. Smoothly understated performances, bursts of flashing memories in montage, fragments of deglamorized violence, and music tracks that sound homemade all make signal contributions to the film’s richly evocative atmosphere—the gloom and glow of tragic farce somewhere out in the underbrush. Pageant Theatre. Rated R.