Sweet Virginia

Sam Rossi, a former rodeo champion, has settled into a quiet life in a small Alaska town, where he runs a modest roadside motel. A young stranger named Elwood checks in, and the two men strike up a friendship, though they turn out to share a common background. What Sam does not realize is that Elwood is connected to a shocking act of violence that has shaken the community. The screenplay was written by Paul Sarantino and the brothers Benjamin and Paul China.

The film is a drama-thriller with elements of the neo-western, directed by Jamie M. Dagg. It is his second feature, following River in 2016. Jon Bernthal plays Sam, Christopher Abbott plays Elwood, and the cast also includes Imogen Poots, Rosemarie DeWitt, Odessa Young and Joseph Lyle Taylor, with 20 credited cast members and 41 credited crew.

Sweet Virginia was released on November 17, 2017 and runs 94 minutes. It is a Canadian-American production from XYZ Films, Automatik Entertainment, Oddfellows Entertainment and Exhibit Entertainment, with Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, Chris Ferguson and Fernando Loureiro among the producers. Its critical rating stands at 6.8/10 from 57 reviews, noticeably higher than its audience scores: 6.2/10 on IMDb from around 12,000 votes and 5.9/10 on TMDB from 344 votes, indicating a modest but divided response to this tense small-town story.