“The Quarry.”

“The Quarry” (2020, Hulu) mystery thriller. In case you are as old as I am who spent 95 percent of his life watching movies, you’d concur that the majority of what we see these days, good or bad, are mere derivatives of past output. Regardless, I never lost my appetite for cinema. My addiction is simply incurable. In saying that, “The Quarry” is no different. We’ve been through this road trip before. 

       The story: Preacher David Martin finds a man unconscious at the side of the road in West Texas. David is traveling to the small town of Bevel to be the new preacher. When they reach a quarry nearby, the man kills David and heads to Bevel. Arriving at the house where David was to stay, the man claims to be David, and is given room and board from Celia, girlfriend of Chief John Moore, of the three-man local sheriff's department.

        Should you allow 98 minutes of your time on this exercise. Sure, for me. After all, the cop is Michael Shannon, who is never boring, and the troubled “man” is Shea Whigham, the painfully underrated best supporting actor in these times. And so we get what we expect of Mr Shannon and Mr Whigham, that I begin to copy their manner of speaking in front of the bathroom mirror, uhh sometimes. 

       Also, “The Quarry” was written by Damon Galgut, who won the 2021 Booker Prize for his novel “The Promise,” which I read. Oftentimes when literature is translated on film, the textural beauty of the narrative is lost or “sacrificed” in favor of the visual clarity of the “motion picture.” But then this little movie is not so bad at all. 🎥💻📽