Earthwork

The film opens with a young Stan Herd living on a farm finding ways to use his imagination creating art on the land. He uses pretty much whatever he can find. For all the joy he finds creating his art in the dirt, he finds the real place to see it is from the air. While living on a farm near Lawrence, Kansas, he has the luck to have his work photographed by a New York photographer who suggests he find a way to do a project, an earthwork, in NYC. Stan Herd has enormous gumption and heart. He makes the trip to New York and convinces Donald Trump to let him do an earthwork on land Trump plans to later develop.

All of the actors deliver performances that are in the category of what I would call sublime. There's an unusual cast of characters who arrive one by one in the New York portion of the film. Stan Herd's Kansas family is supportive, kind and caring. These are people deserving of a quiet portrayal, with real emotion that comes through without having to rise to a passion that is bombastic. They make their points softly. John Hawkes becomes a very focused Stan Herd in this film. He shows us a strong minded, talented, trusting and sweet natured man. The audience gets pulled into his world, which is actually quite beautiful and full of sunshine.