A Masterpiece!

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

A child overcomes the stupidity of adults, with the help of the occult. A little crazy story and at times impractical.

Story of 11 year old Gitty, living on her family farm during the perilous for farmers 1980s, with her loving father, a pregnant and somewhat indifferent mother, and a viciously sadistic older brother. So many things don't make sense in this flick, starting with why the brother's behavior is tolerated by his parents. This character sent the film in the direction of a horror flick he was so disturbed. And were the parents willing to go all the way and kill someone to save their farm? Then Vera, a stranger and outsider, who is somehow connected to the parents trying to save their farm yet we aren't told who she is, where she came from and why and how she was involved in the parents crime. Even weirder, from time to time we see Vera riding a black horse dressed like a dark underworld character replete with giant curled back horns, this apparently a product of Gitty's fantasy world. Many puzzles with no answers for the viewers. The actors are good and it could have been a good film due to an unusual plot, but it was ruined by the directing and editing.

I feel like the rating for this movie should be much higher than it is, considering how original and interesting the plot was. Sure there were fantasy elements, and things that made you question reality, but it didn't take away from the film as a whole. I enjoyed this movie from beginning to end. Peyton Kennedy blew me away and made me want to see her in just about anything else. Children really are such natural actors. She is the main reason people should see this film and enjoy it more than they may have otherwise. I really liked the way the script played with good & evil, similarly to what Christopher Nolan likes to do. I would watch this again, and certainly watch more like this.

American Fable is set in the mid west of Reagan's 1980s America where some farmers were financially hard hit, heading for bankruptcy with their land being bought up by investors.Gitty (Peyton Kennedy) is an eleven year old girl living with her dad Abe (Kip Pardue) who is struggling farmer, mother Sarah (Marci Miller) who is pregnant and older brother Martin (Gavin MacIntosh) who is hostile, bully and a borderline psycho, just see the way he nearly chopped her hand off.Gitty lives a care free rural life, she may not have many friends but she has a pet chicken and her own fantasy world. One day in an out of bounds silo in the far reaches of their family farm, Gitty finds a businessman Jonathan (Richard Schiff) being held captive. Gitty feeds him, brings him books to read. He tells her stories and even teaches her to play chess. Obviously Richard is befriending her so she can help him escape but he appears to be genuine enough.It seems her dad, mum and brother are in league with a mysterious woman called Vera, who wants the farmers to fight back against these rich developers. Gitty is in a dilemma whether to free Jonathan and put her family at risk of arrest.The film wants to be a fable, you have various tales being told, a fantasy sequence but it is not wholly coherent. The film reaches an urgency at the climax but you really are left thinking as to how this crazy brother has not yet been institutionalised.The film benefits from wonderful photography even the night scenes are well utilised but the film is under-cooked.