Few towns are more appropriately named than Uncertain, Texas, a somnolent small community so out of the way that “you’ve got to be lost to find it”. As this stunning observational documentary discovers, the future of the town is in doubt, as the lake that serves it is clogged with a rampant, non-native weed.
Film-makers Ewan McNicol and Anna Sandilands weave together the vivid stories of three male residents of Uncertain. One is a grandfather moving on from the death of his wife with a relationship with a woman who, his children fear, sees him as a meal ticket. Another is a sickly, unemployed youth who dreams of escape to a city. But the richest material comes from the former drug user and ex-con who has channelled his addictive nature into a Moby-Dick-like mission to hunt and kill a wild hog called “Mister Ed”. The film is shot and edited with a wry humour that balances out the darker themes of life on the periphery.
