Milwaukee, Minnesota

This quirky indie of traumatic family secrets, lost causes, murderous venality and 'sadder but wiser' small triumphs takes its emotional temperature from the freezing landscape of Minnesota ('a perpetual rotten tooth', as one character puts it). Lonesome small town Milwaukee citizens may form a gallery of losers, cranks and the dangerous disturbed, but they're nothing compared to the visitors passing through. Retarded Albert (Garity), the State Ice Fishing champion, is due to inherit a fortune upon his mother's death. Mobile no-goods Tuey (Folland) and 'cancer-ridden' bro Stan (Harris) see an opportunity. But slimeball salesman (Quaid) prepares to throw a curve ball. Working from a psychologically overloaded script, Allan Mindel delivers a progressively winning, quietly stylised, white 'noir', aided by a sweet, low ambient score, loving portraiture by cameraman Bernd Heinl and excellent performances all round.