I grew up in a small town.

I grew up in a small town and moved away to attend university. After graduating, the economy bottomed out and I've had to return back to my hometown. This film does a fantastic job of portraying how completely meaningless, boring, and depressing living in a small town can be. It's no secret why such places give birth to such broken, depressed people that dream of moving away but usually end up rotting in unison with the very place they hate.

I was very fortunate to grow up when the Internet was really starting to come into its own. As a result, the Internet provided me with a social outlet on top of allowing me to culturally enrich myself by making books, movies, and music available to order. You see, my town didn't (and still doesn't) have a movie theatre. Nor does it have a video store of any sort. So I'm thankful that the Internet made complete tedium a little more bearable.

I've returned home to a town that is devoid of any sort of culture. There is a complete lack of anything to do. It's no surprise that a lot of people drink themselves stupid to try to liven things up a little. To top things off, there are no major businesses and the town constantly suffers economically. One gets the feeling that things will never improve. Most of the people that live here are geriatric. Once people turn 18, they generally go to college or flee from here in some other fashion. The few people that willingly stay usually end up in a funk and constantly ponder how things could have ended up differently. So yes, this film nails all of this. If you never grew up or have lived in a town like this then consider yourself fortunate. Dreams die, people become irretrievably broken, and the few interesting or good people that live in the town are viewed as outsiders. It all sounds like hyperbole until you've actually seen it and lived it.