Wow! Such a good movie.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

The first must-see film of the year.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

You have to wonder why and how step-brothers can hate one another to the point of death. This story will tell you how.

How simple and yet powerful this picture was. I mean it is low-budget, its Jeff Nichols debut picture! But you can't even tell. Its simple and it gets to the point. Most of the story surrounds familiar quarrels and how it unfolds and gets out of control. But the way it captures an aspect of a certain American society is just spot on. The whole mood throughout the entire picture is really down, and gloomy but it still allows you to go along through the movie really sucked into the movie. This film hurts, it is not a feel good movie, but that doesn't matter, its really just about an affect Nichols wanted to achieve and it was so brilliant. This is film is about pain and its so damn beautiful

Would this be worth watching without Michael Shannon? I don't think it would be! I watched this film after seeing Take Shelter which was a solid 7 maybe even an 8. Don't get me wrong Shotgun Stories kept my interest but only because of Michael Shannon. Normally for these kind of movies to keep me interested they need to have more than one or two great actors/actress. I really wonder if when this came out people were just starting to discover Michael and that's why it has a 7 rating. I was not impressed with some of the main characters performances. I do think Jeff Nichols did a great job on this one.

I must start by explaining the summary comment. I put this in the DVD at 11:30pm after watching the Superbowl and doing the required beer drinking that goes with that. I was pretty sure I would be re-watching "Shotgun Stories" in the morning as I planned to fall asleep. I was amazed that a very slow moving, no real action to speak of movie did such a great job of keeping my interest up. Kicked it out of the DVD at 1:00am, reminded myself to find out who the star was and see what else he had been in since I do not remember him from anything. Michael Shannon is a great friggin actor. I had no interest at all in "Revolutionary Road" but will see it now just to watch his Oscar nominated work."Shotgun Stories" is well worth the hour and a half. You may find yourselves waiting for something big to happen and then realize it did without the gun play or explosions.