"The claustrophobic sense of being trapped in cycles of hatred, contempt, and dismissal is fostered by the look of the film overall. It’s drab and miasmic, as if the atmosphere were poisoned by the sick scapegoating rage directed at Jews, immigrants, and people of color by so many locals, and by the dismissive assumptions of urban liberal types who assume the rural white working class are all “a basket of deplorables.”

“We weren’t all born under a white sheet,” one aggrieved local woman tells Husk.

It’s not until Husk heads out into nature to clear his head that the look of the film brightens to reveal the beauty of the awesome forested landscape of the Pacific Northwest. Two different times, the same majestic elk steps into view, and Husk automatically hauls out his gun to shoot it. The second time he hesitates, and we’re left to interpret his hesitation. Is he wondering if it’s possible to be a man and not shoot something?"

Eileen Jones