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God's country song, common sense media reviewers.

Moving faith-based redemption tale features heavy drinking.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Promotes going for your dreams, taking care of fam

Noah is dealing with grief and regret and he resor

Male and female leads are White. Side characters a

Two men get into a vicious drunken bar fight. The

It's implied that Noah used to be promiscuous with

Parents need to know that God's Country Song is a dramatic faith-based story about a country musician who dreams of being a star. Just as his career is beginning to take off, he learns he has a 4-year-old son he's never met. The story has a religious undertone with characters sometimes praying to ask God for…

Positive Messages

Positive role models, diverse representations.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Two men get into a vicious drunken bar fight. The main character has a bloody lip and bruised face that lingers for a while. Viewers can hear a violent outburst where Noah smashes a guitar. Larry and Noah go to a shooting range where they fire rifles. Discussion of a death and some heavy themes of grief.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that God's Country Song is a dramatic faith-based story about a country musician who dreams of being a star. Just as his career is beginning to take off, he learns he has a 4-year-old son he's never met. The story has a religious undertone with characters sometimes praying to ask God for help and forgiveness. The movie depicts alcohol abuse and shows extensive instances of the main character drinking and being drunk. He drinks to the point of vomiting. He drinks from a flask, cans, before shows/work, and overindulges to the point of nearly passing out. The movie focuses on his journey to overcoming that. Violence includes arguments and an aggressive bar fight. There's discussion of a death and some heavy themes of grief. It's implied that a character used to be promiscuous with different women and many claimed to have his children. The role models are mixed as the main character has some character flaws that take a while to be redeemed; however, he's surrounded by loved ones who are good examples and help him through his trials. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

• Parents say (2)

Based on 2 parent reviews

Story of forgiveness

although the acting is a little cliché, it was very good storyline about forgiveness and God and fatherhood.

God's not real

What's the story, is it any good, talk to your kids about ....

Families can talk about the concept of second chances in real life and how it's never too late to change. Can you think of some examples of someone who has faced setbacks but later found success or redemption? How was it achieved?

Discuss the significance of Noah's struggle with alcohol in the film. How does the movie portray the challenges of addiction, and what message does it send about seeking help and recovery?

What did you notice about the character development in the film? How do Noah's flaws and struggles make him a relatable character?

Explore the role of faith in the characters' lives. How does faith influence their decisions and personal growth?

Movie Details

• On DVD or streaming : September 19, 2023
• Cast : Justin Gaston , Christopher Michael , Justene Alpert , Mariel Hemingway , John Laughlin
• Director : Johnny Remo
• Inclusion Information : Black actors, Female actors
• Studios : Canyon Productions , Skipstone Pictures
• Genre : Drama
• Topics : Music and Sing-Along
• Run time : 104 minutes
• MPAA rating : NR
• Last updated : October 15, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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GOD’S COUNTRY SONG

"not just another country song".

What You Need To Know:

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:   No smoking content or drug use or abuse; and, Miscellaneous Behavior:  Country singer’s manager says, before paternity test results are known, “Either way, God has a plan,” and the movie portrays a dysfunctional family relationship between the father and son, which exhibits itself through bitterness, anger and resentment from past disagreements that were never confronted, aired or resolved, but their relationship is eventually healed. 

More Detail:

GOD’S COUNTRY SONG is an irresistibly rousing movie on Pure Flix about a troubled country singer who struggles with alcohol abuse and tries to get sober when he has to take care of the young son, he didn’t know he had, while mending fences with his father. Packed with 14 entertaining original songs, GOD’S COUNTRY SONG delivers a remarkably entertaining yet turbulent and intense portrayal of a weighty subject, but it passionately depicts the power of God’s love and redemption through Jesus Christ.  

Given the Pure Flix intention to be a Christian family channel, GOD’S COUNTRY SONG pushes the boundaries slightly with the movie’s realistic coverage of substance abuse. GOD’S COUNTRY SONG provides a family-friendly way to think and talk about the subject.  

The first scene of GOD’S COUNTRY SONG launches the subject of alcohol front and center as the camera work starts at the bar of a country-western dance hall. The bartender hands a tray of poured drinks to a waitress, whom the camera follows as she delivers the beers to waiting patrons, a crowd of country music fans. The attention switches to the source of the music dominating the scene, singer Noah Bryan and his band, belt out a lively song that eventually gets the crowd involved. This is a scene that will play out several times throughout the movie, as Noah and his band are on tour, where they’re found every week at a similar venue in a different town. Noah’s preshow and post show alcoholic beverage intake is a repeat depiction as well.  

Noah’s manager, Larry Walker, has booked the tour to get Noah the exposure necessary for a big break in the music business. Larry and Noah hope that talent agents, studio execs, or more well-known country music artists will catch the act and invite Noah to the next level.  

A successful recording artist, Colt Young, played by real-life country star Coffey Anderson, invites Noah to his recording studio to see if Noah is a good match for Colt’s opening act for the next tour. An agreement is struck, and Noah is about to get the break he’s been working for so hard and so long.  

Three major challenges arise in the story arc, two known and one a surprise. The obvious comes as Colt and his recording label demand that there’s no alcohol use on his tours. Sadly, though, Noah’s drinking just gets worse, to the point of hindering his own performances, and eventually leading him into an arrest, which puts the brakes on the tour with Colt.  

The unexpected turn arrives with the serving of court papers that declare Noah the father of a heretofore unknown child. A paternity test proves Noah to be the biological father of a pre-kindergarten aged son named JJ, and Noah gets custody of JJ. Now a father with a son to raise, Noah must suddenly rearrange his daily life for this lifetime commitment to raise a human being. Noah’s first instinct is to turn to his own immediate family, his father and mother, Jeremiah and Sara, who manage a third-generation farm and are devout Christians.  

The other known challenge is Noah’s estranged relationship with his father, Jeremiah. This broken relationship is painfully portrayed in prior scenes of GOD’S COUNTRY SONG. Returning to that relationship will be difficult enough for both father and son. Complicating matter is that Noah’s own parenting skills seem clumsy to him, based on his dysfunctional relationship with his father. Meanwhile, Noah develops a romantic interest in JJ’s social worker, Leann.  

Will the Christian witness of Noah’s manager, his parents and Colt hep him find Jesus and give up the bottle?  

The production quality in GOD’S COUNTRY SONG is first rate. The movie presents an entertaining combination of high-quality acting, top-notch directing, an engaging script, and great cinematography both indoors and outside. The movie takes time to pause in silence with the characters to evoke their feelings and thoughts. Also, the soundtrack is a real treat, with 14 original songs comparable to any big screen production. Married Nashville artists Melissa and Andy Sheridan created 13 of the 14 original songs. Lead actor Justin Gaston was so inspired by the movie’s effect upon him that he wrote and recorded a song (“The One”) expressing his own gratefulness to God for not letting his own past define him, but rather God being “The One” to want him, even to save him. Justin plays Noah with great believability.  

GOD’S COUNTRY SONG has a strong Christian, biblical worldview. This is portrayed in multiple ways.  

For example, Noah’s parents read Scripture, pray and attend worship services in church. Noah’s manager, Larry, and Colt, the country star in the story, promote Christian lyrics, lifestyles and second chances. The story also promotes repentance, turning your life over to Jesus Christ, or whether through Noah’s turning his life over to Christ through prayer, making amends, and stepping into self-sacrificial love with his family and friends.  

MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for older children. That’s because GOD’S COUNTRY SONG depicts the self-gratification and hedonism that comes with a pagan lifestyle. For example, the movie depicts the dark world of alcohol abuse. It shows Noah’s public drunkenness, his deteriorating relationships, and Noah getting into a bar fistfight while under the influence. Also, the dance hall scenes show numerous young adult crowds enjoying booze.  

As an earlier MOVIEGUIDE® article astutely observed, however, “GOD’S COUNTRY SONG speaks to a lesser publicized reality of the Christian walk – pain, suffering, and sorrow – which is important to highlight because it reveals God’s redemptive power” (https://www.movieguide.org/news-articles/how-gods-country-song-tackles-difficulties-in-the-christian-walk.html).  

Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.

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God’s Country Song

Noah Bryan wants nothing more than to be the next big country music star, until his past catches up to him. With the help of his seasoned manager, Larry Walker, Noah is quickly on his way to becoming the next big thing. Playing the little honky-tonks and cowboy bars starts to pay off and Noah’s career gains momentum. After a show one night, Noah receives the news that he has a four-year-old son named J.J. with a woman he barely remembers, who recently passed away, leaving Noah sole custody of the child. J.J. is in the care of Leeann, a pretty, young woman who cares deeply for J.J. and eventually falls for Noah. Believing his career is over, Noah reluctantly agrees to meet the boy. He is determined to do the right thing and steps up to raise J.J., but soon realizes he needs help. He calls his parents, Sara and Jeremiah, moves home with J.J., and back to the farm life he ran away from.

Dove Review

Directed by prolific filmmaker, Johnny Remo ( A Letter to Dad, Saved by Grace), God’s Country Song is another quality faith-based film with an interesting story. The plot centers around Noah Bryan (nicely played by Justin Gaston). Noah dreams of becoming the next big country superstar, but he has a past that begins catching up to him. He learns that he is the father of a four-year-old boy named J.J. When Noah meets with Leeann (also well-played by Justene Alpert), the woman who has been caring for J.J., there is an attraction between Noah and Leeann. Leeann really cares for J.J. and it’s her goal to make sure that Noah makes time for his newly discovered son. When Noah moves back to his parents’ home, trouble soon brews as Noah and his father don’t see eye to eye. His dad doesn’t want him pursuing his dream of being a country star, and Noah believes his dad doesn’t appreciate the person that he is, and the talent that he has. Their past also includes dealing with the loss of Noah’s older brother.

The movie not only features solid acting, but great vocals from Noah. Dashes of humor are added to the film too, which keeps the film from becoming bogged down with too much sadness and drama. Another nice work of acting belongs to Christopher Michael, who plays Noah’s manager, Larry Walker. In one scene, Colt Young (Coffey Anderson), a big artist, is considering having Noah open his shows, and he and Larry have a humorous exchange. Colt tells Larry he looks good for “an old codger.” Larry replies that he has socks older than him and “not to forget it!” Another comedic moment occurs when Noah practices meeting Colt beforehand, reaching out his hand and trying various opening greetings.

The drama is a big part of the film. Noah is battling the bottle and drinking too much. Larry constantly rides him to quit and to be prepared for his concerts. Becoming a father is good for Noah, who appreciates the love he receives from his son. In one touching scene, J.J. hugs his father and says, “I love you, Daddy,” and Noah is visibly touched. Mariel Hemingway plays Noah’s mother, Sara, and John Laughlin plays his dad, Jeremiah.

The film displays some realistic life moments, including Noah getting into a fistfight in a bar, and there are various scenes of him drinking. On the other hand, his parents pray over their meals, and the gospel message is presented in the film, and Noah comes to the conclusion that he has to make a change. There’s a nice church scene featured in which the pastor preaches a sermon about sacrificing for the Lord.

In another meaningful scene, Noah’s mother shows him his father’s belt buckles, won for bull riding competitions. Noah learns his father quit bull riding in order to take care of his family. Near the end of the movie, Noah’s dad surprises him in a way that reveals he’s not as against Noah using his talent as Noah might have thought. The film features various scenes pointing to the need for Christ in one’s life. And one of the songs is about stepping up when the pressure is on, and that’s what it means to be a man.

THINK ABOUT IT: There are various spiritual scenes, including one with Noah praying on his knees. And he realizes that life without God is not really living life to its fullest. This film definitely features a Christian world view and shows what can happen when one is willing to forgive, to ask for forgiveness, and to follow the leading of the Lord. It is recommended for Ages 12+. It also presents the need for second chances in life.

Dove Rating Details

A strong faith message with a man ultimately embracing the Christian faith.

A woman who has been a caregiver to a young boy makes sure he is taken care of when united with his father; a mother is direct with her grown son when he makes mistakes or is headed in a wrong direction; a singer’s manager constantly reminds him he needs to give up his drinking and to be prepared for his concerts.

A couple of kissing scenes in which a woman kisses a man on the cheek and then they kiss one another on the mouth; a man had a son out of wedlock and hardly remembers the mother who has died, but he changes and becomes a man of integrity.

Two men get into a fist fight and a man has a bloody cheek and lip and the other man has some blood on his mouth.

A man drinks heavily in a few scenes and gets sick in one; some bar scenes; people are seen drinking beer or strong alcohol in a few scenes.

Tension between a man and his father; a man gets sick from drinking.

More Information

Film information, dove content.

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God’s Country Song Review

Last Updated on June 17, 2023 by ellen

Check out my God’s Country Song review and learn more about this inspiring new movie you can watch exclusively on Pure Flix.

Posts may be sponsored. This post contains affiliate links, which means I will make a commission at no extra cost to you should you click through and make a purchase. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Table of Contents

God’s Country Song is a multigenerational story about faith, fatherhood and forgiveness. Noah has always resented his father for not supporting his dreams of fame and fortune, but when he learns how his father gave up his own ambitions to serve God and his family, he learns a valuable lesson.

God’s Country Song is a heartfelt movie on what it means to be a father and place your family before your ambitions. Watch as Noah rediscovers his faith, reconnects with his own father and follows God’s plan for his life. 

Watch the trailer here .

About God’s Country Song

Noah Bryan was determined to make a name for himself in the country music world, having spent countless hours playing at small honky-tonks and cowboy bars.

With Larry Walker as his manager, things were already looking up for Noah – until he received the news that he had a four-year-old son named JJ with a woman he barely remembered.

Despite the sudden curveball, Noah was determined to continue his journey to country music stardom and take care of his son. Check out the website for more information.

Who stars in God’s Country Song?

• Justin Gaston
• Christopher Michael
• Justene Alpert
• Mariel Hemingway

Where can I watch this movie?

This is available exclusively on Pure Flix. If you don’t already have a subscription, find out more about  Pure Flix  and the content they offer.

God’s Country Song is a heartwarming movie that showcases the power of perseverance and determination. I absolutely loved watching this movie!

It was filled with poignant moments that had me hooked from the very start. The acting was top-notch, especially from Justin Gaston himself, whose performance as a struggling musician and father was truly inspiring.

God’s Country Song is a film that I highly recommend to anyone looking for an uplifting, feel-good story. Noah Bryan’s journey to becoming the next big country music star while also raising his son JJ will stay with you long after the credits roll.

This movie is an absolute must-watch! Find out more about Pure Flix  and the content they offer.

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Ellen is a mom of a 25-year-old son and 30-year-old daughter. She is Grandma to one adorable toddler. In what little spare time she has, she loves to read, watch movies, and check out the latest toys and games.

One thought on “ God’s Country Song Review ”

I love country music and think I would like this movie.

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• DVD & Streaming

God’s Country Song

• Christian , Drama , Romance

Content Caution

In Theaters

• Mariel Hemingway as Sarah Bryan; John Laughlin as Jeremiah Bryan; Justene Alpert as LeAnne; Justin Gaston as Noah Bryan; Christopher Michael as Larry Walker; Coffey Anderson as Colt Young; David Dittmeier as Rico; J.J. Miller as J.J. Bryan

Home Release Date

• June 16, 2023
• Johnny Remo

Distributor

• Pure Flix Entertainment

Movie Review

Noah Bryan is living the dream.

The country music fans love him. He’s touring the nation. And his success in that genre seems inevitable.

As far as Noah is concerned, things couldn’t get any better.

But turns out, they could—though, perhaps in an unexpected way.

Noah soon gets a letter from a lawyer asking him to take a paternity test. A young boy has lost his mother, and Noah may be the only surviving guardian. After some prodding from his manager, Larry, Noah agrees to take the test. To Noah’s dismay, the test confirms that he is the father of J.J. Bryan.

Noah’s not thrilled, as you might expect. Finding out that you’re a father—and you didn’t know it—comes as a shock.

But that initial dismay turns to delight when Noah meets his son. As they spend time together, little J.J. captures Noah’s heart. They spend the day playing, accompanied by social worker. Her name is LeAnne. And Noah takes interest in her, too. By the end of the day, Noah gladly agrees to bring J.J. home to live with him.

But is Noah ready to become the parent J.J. needs?

Despite his genuine feelings about J.J., Noah has quite a bit of baggage to deal with. And as his career simultaneously takes off, Noah struggles with pride and making his son a priority. Furthermore, Noah’s troubled relationship with his father and unresolved grief cause him to turn to alcohol for solace.

Noah must learn there is more to being a father than simply having a kid. It may even require significant sacrifice.

Positive Elements

God’s Country Song demonstrates the importance of family, and it depicts healing, redemptive family relationships. Colt Young, a famous country artist, encourages Noah, saying, “Family’s great. It reminds you of what’s important.”

The movie also highlights Noah’s journey toward becoming a parent. Larry tells Noah that being a father is “a huge responsibility but worth every minute.” Larry also encourages Noah to seek the help of his parents to help raise J.J.

Spiritual Elements

Characters make references to the Bible and Christianity throughout the movie. Larry tells Noah that he has a God-given gift, but that pride comes before the fall. And before he takes the paternity test, Larry reminds Noah that God has a plan for him.

At first, Noah resists conversations about Christianity and biblical advice. He tells Larry that he doesn’t need his “God stuff.”

Characters go to church together and hear a sermon on Philippians 3:8. The pastor encourages the congregation to make sacrifices for the most important things in their lives. The pastor also quotes Jesus’ warning against gaining the world but losing your soul.

Sexual Content

It is implied that Noah used to sleep around with different women, but he claims that J.J.’s mom was different than the rest of them.

Characters meet for a date in a bar. They swing dance together and share an intimate, though innocuous, moment.

Characters (married an unmarried) give their partners pecks on the cheek. We see an unmarried couple kiss.

Violent Content

Larry takes Noah to a shooting range where they fire rifles.

Characters at a bar get into a fight, both throwing punches that draw blood. One character’s face is bloodied and bruised as a result.

We hear a character angrily smash a guitar. Sarah jokingly slaps her husband’s hand before he can sneak a piece of breakfast.

We hear about the death of some characters, and we see themes related to grief throughout the film.

Crude or Profane Language

We hear the phrase “God knows” twice.

Drug and Alcohol Content

Many of Noah’s singing gigs take place in bars, where patrons are obviously drinking. A character gets very drunk and vomits. Additionally, Noah has a clear alcohol addiction, though several characters chide him for this vice.

Other Negative Elements

Initially, Noah thinks his life is ruined by the fact that he has a child. And despite his character growth in the film, some of Noah’s original reasons for taking custody of J.J. are selfish, and he is not always fully present in J.J.’s life.

Like any young child, J.J. is not afraid to speak his mind. Bluntly at times. Twice, J.J. refers directly to what he needs to do in the bathroom.

Noah and Jeremiah have a strained relationship. They argue often, sometimes yelling at each other. Elsewhere, Noah jokingly suggests that his family won their home in a game of poker.

There’s a lot going on in God’s Country Song . Noah battles a drinking problem, deals with grief, attempts to connect with his father, struggles to overcome a pride issue and learns to be a good dad. Oh, and did I mention this is also a love story?

Though all of these plot strands eventually come together, the story’s pacing and focus still feel a bit off.

Regardless, the movie tells a sweet story about God’s hand in rectifying a broken life and a broken family. Plus, young J.J. is pretty adorable.

If your family is looking for a movie that’s utterly devoid of content issues, God’s Country Song doesn’t quite fit the bill. The theme of alcohol addiction and the bar fight scene may be a little intense for younger viewers. And though there’s nothing explicit, we do get verbal hints about Noah’s previous promiscuity.

But though this movie may not be completely squeaky clean, it’s still a lot cleaner than the vast majority of movies out there these days. And God’s Country Song also provides a positive message about redemption and sacrifice—one that might just have you humming country tunes all day long.

Sarah Rasmussen

Sarah Rasmussen is the Plugged In intern for Summer 2023.

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God's Country Song

Where to Watch

Justin Gaston (Noah Bryan) Christopher Michael (Larry Walker) Justene Alpert (Leanne) Mariel Hemingway (Sara Bryan) John Laughlin (Jeremiah Bryan) JJ Miller (JJ) Coffey Anderson (Colt Young) Marcus Medina (Boyfriend) Victoria Fox (Brenda) Renae Barr (VIP Fangirl)

Johnny Remo

Noah Bryan wants nothing more than to be the next big country music star, until his past catches up with him.

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Western Montana is a wild place, full of beauty and desolation, though “God’s Country” dwells more upon the latter. In its forlorn depiction of this vast, mountainous sweep, the ground is frozen and hard, and the people who live there are much the same. 

Early in Julian Higgins ’ profound and haunting feature debut, out Friday, university professor Sandra ( Thandiwe Newton ) watches as a pine box disappears into a crematorium’s waiting furnace. Her face is worn, etched with regret. With a pickaxe, she buries the ashes near her home in a snow-capped canyon. Nearly eight minutes pass before we hear Sandra speak. It takes longer to learn that the recently-deceased was her ailing mother, and “God’s Country” has half-elapsed before the reason both mother and daughter first came to these barren plains is illuminated. 

After returning home, Sandra spots a red pick-up truck parked on her property. She leaves a note behind the windshield, warning the trespassers to go elsewhere. Instead, the next day, they return. Sandra finds the note crumpled in the snow, next to the bloodied carcass of a bird. Confronted, the pair—Nathan ( Joris Jarsky ) and Samuel ( Jefferson White , of “Yellowstone”)—claim not to have seen Sandra’s note but explain that her property provides the best jumping-off points for hunting in the surrounding forest. 

They’re not asking. Fatefully, neither is she. Sandra tows their truck; the next morning, she finds an arrow shot into her front door. And so escalates an ominous battle of wills between Sandra and the hunters, one that threatens at any moment to erupt into the spectacle of violence that’s long been as mythically linked to the American West as colonial concepts of frontier justice and manifest destiny. 

But it doesn’t, at least not at first. Higgins and cinematographer Andrew Wheeler sustain a mood of charged stillness that imbues their stark images—a cigarette smoldering in snow, a dilapidated house in the middle of nowhere—with elemental weight and poetry, inviting us to contemplate the power struggle at the film’s center as something more existential than a dispute over territory. 

In one evocation of “ Winter Light ,” the James Lee Burke short story from which “God’s Country” is drawn, long shots are framed to emphasize Sandra’s smallness against, and isolation within, the many structures—houses, churches, landscapes—that dwarf her. In another, sacred ground affords Sandra and Nathan the time and space to uncover a connection that’s quietly linked them their whole lives. She asks him, and herself, “Are you just what happened to you?”

Higgins previously adapted “Winter Light” as a short film. In reapproaching it as a feature, he and co-writer Shaye Ogbonna changed the protagonist from a white man in his sixties to a Black woman in her forties, a decision that greatly stimulates the narrative’s sociopolitical subtext while expanding its scope. 

No longer simply about one man’s moral struggle to resist the violence embedded within him, “God’s Country” still explores cycles of masculine aggression, particularly in a tense sequence where the acting sheriff ( Jeremy Bobb ) intervenes in the feud. The near-calamitous results of this attempt at de-escalation also reveal the hatred many locals—both white and Indigenous—reserve for law enforcement and identify another failed institution Sandra cannot count on. 

But “God’s Country” is just as deft at depicting the accumulated burden of Sandra’s experiences as a Black woman determined to carve out a space for herself in this rural, unsettled part of the country, and as such unwilling to cede even an inch of ground in her interactions with the locals. Nathan, whom she encounters first, eventually responds to this resilience with a begrudging admiration, albeit one that we glean later has been tainted by his upbringing. More terrifying is Samuel, played by White with a gaunt and wolfish hunger that could be more than an intimidation tactic. When Sandra follows him home and asks, “Why are you like this?” in an effort to gain the upper hand, the dark look in his eyes forces her to beat a hasty retreat.

The film also captures the toll of Sandra’s exposure to other threats and forms of racial animus and gender-based violence that pollute the air constantly, including at her university, where the department head ( Kai Lennox ) only considers inclusivity to a point, and a revelation involving a student she’s nurtured ( Tanaya Beatty ) brings Sandra to a breaking point. 

At every turn magnifying the dramatic power of this story is Newton, an actress of exceptional grit and grace who’s capable of communicating more emotion in a single, simmering look than many pages of dialogue could exposit. (Indeed, Newton’s central role on HBO’s “Westworld” often seems devised to showcase this.) She’s in every scene of “God’s Country” and rises to the occasion with a performance of ferocious strength and vulnerability, the greatest of her career. Though the film’s mood of solemn restraint characterizes her work as well, Newton lays bare Sandra’s inner struggle between lived defiance and learned despair as the fight of her life.

And so the progression of her character’s bone-deep weariness—the hardening of her anger, strength, and convictions into a cold, annihilative rage that drives the film to its conclusion—has about it the inevitability of a gathering storm, a reckoning, and a tragedy. “Sometimes it feels like things never change,” Sandra tells her students. “But I promise you they do. They have to.” 

As “God’s Country” reaches its darkly exhilarating final shot, we’re left to question what sacrifices will be required to break the cycles of violence and systemic oppression that have informed so much of America’s history, society, and self-knowledge. It’s a question asked in another way by the film’s very first scene, which takes place in a darkened classroom, as a slide projector casts image after image of American conquest against a screen—a rack of bison pelts, two white men looming above a Native tribesman, a Black woman with one eye bruised—for no one but us, now, to see more clearly. 

“God’s Country” is in theaters Sept. 16.

Isaac Feldberg

Isaac Feldberg is an entertainment journalist currently based in Chicago, who’s been writing professionally for nine years and hopes to stay at it for a few more.

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Film credits.

God's Country (2022)

Rated R for language.

102 minutes

Thandiwe Newton as Sandra Guidry

Jefferson White as Samuel Cody

Tanaya Beatty as Gretchen

Jeremy Bobb as Gus Wolf

Kai Lennox as Arthur Gates

Joris Jarsky as Nathan Cody

• Julian Higgins
• Shaye Ogbonna

Cinematographer

• Andrew Wheeler
• Justin Laforge
• DeAndre James Allen-Toole

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God's country song.

2023 Directed by Johnny Remo

Noah Bryan wants nothing more than to be the next big country music star, until his past catches up to him. With the help of his seasoned manager Larry Walker, Noah is quickly on his way to becoming the next big thing. Playing the little honky-tonks and cowboy bars starts to pay off and Noah's career gains momentum.

Justin Gaston Justene Alpert Mariel Hemingway John Laughlin Eric Parkinson Christopher Michael Erin Day Faron Ledbetter David Dittmeier Coffey Anderson Tori Nadine Weston Kenyon Marcos Medina Patricia Rouse Matthew Jaycox Robert Manning JJ Miller Zachary Grundon

Director Director

Johnny Remo

Producer Producer

Writers writers.

Daniel Backman Johnny Remo

Casting Casting

Farrah West

Editor Editor

Cinematography cinematography.

Kevin Bryan

Executive Producer Exec. Producer

Shawn Boskie

Production Design Production Design

Art direction art direction.

Robie DuChateau

Composer Composer

Sandro Morales Santoro

Skipstone Pictures Canyon Productions Pure Flix Entertainment Another Country Song Movie Pinnacle Peak Pictures

Alternative Titles

Another Country Song, Dievo šalies daina

Releases by Date

15 jun 2023, releases by country.

• Digital Pure Flix

More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Richard Propes ★★★★

There's something different about the latest Pure Flix Original Film God's Country Song.

It's a little bit more real than I expected.

It's a little bit grittier. It's a little bit more willing to delve into the darknesses that can envelope us and the challenges that we can so easily face along the faith journey. I mean, sure, you'll never for a moment forget that God's Country Song is a faith-based film but it's a faith-based film that also reminds us that living a life of faith isn't some carved in stone guarantee that life's going to be beautiful and perfect and everything we've ever dreamed it would be.

God's Country Song is, if anything, a reminder that being a…

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Cats in the Cradle Blog

Seeking Jesus, Prioritizing Family, Living Intentionally

Find Inspiration in ‘God’s Country Song’: A Movie Review for Intentional Parents

We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post.

Full disclosure, Pure Flix provided me with a sample of their product for this review. However, the opinions expressed in this article are entirely my own.

As a parent, I recently watched a movie that touched my heart and reminded me of the importance of intentional parenting. “ God’s Country Song ” is a beautiful film that explores themes of forgiveness, redemption, and second chances. The movie follows Noah, a country music star on the rise, who discovers he has a son and is forced to slow down and take responsibility. Through his journey, we see the value of family, the importance of putting others before ourselves, and the power of humility.

As parents, it’s easy to get caught up in our own dreams, but this movie reminds us that our children should always come first. It also shows us how repairing family relationships can help us do better for our kids. The film includes several Bible verses, including Mark 8:36, Philippians 3:7, and Proverbs 11:2, which align perfectly with the movie’s themes.

Philippians 3:7 says, “But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.” I highly recommend “ God’s Country Song ” as a film that showcases the power of family and faith in shaping our lives. With its relatable characters and uplifting message, this movie is a must-see for parents who want to inspire their children to pursue their dreams and walk in God’s path.

Watch the Trailer Below:

Pure Flix is a streaming service that specializes in faith and family-friendly content. With new high-quality original entertainment every week, you can strengthen your faith and family with Pure Flix – a streaming service that inspires, uplifts, and entertains. Pure Flix offers the largest variety of wholesome movies, series, and kids’ content at one low price. With a monthly plan that costs $7.99 or an annual plan at $69.99 per year (which equals $5.84 per month), you can access positive, encouraging entertainment that can make a difference in your home.

As a special offer, Pure Flix is providing a 3-month subscription giveaway to a lucky winner. This giveaway is limited to US residents who have not won a subscription in the last 6 months. To enter, please fill out the form below.

Don’t forget to check out the interview below with Justin, who plays the lead in “ God’s Country Song ,” for some behind-the-scenes insights. So, grab some popcorn, snuggle up with your family, and watch this incredible movie. I promise it will leave you feeling moved and motivated to be an intentional parent. Remember, our children are our greatest blessings, and it’s up to us to guide them on their journey through life. Don’t miss this heartwarming and inspiring film, exclusively on Pure Flix . Start your free 7-day trial today and discover more at http://www.pureflix.com .

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6 thoughts on “ Find Inspiration in ‘God’s Country Song’: A Movie Review for Intentional Parents ”

Sounds like a powerful movie and I love the theme of the connection between music and spirituality! Your review has sparked my interest and look forward to watching with my family!

looks like a great movie

This looks like a great movie

This looks like a great movie!

Thank you for sharing this

Seems like a very inspiring movie! Thanks for sharing!

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Christian walk isn’t always an easy one; often, it’s riddled with pain, brokenness and sorrow — and it’s necessary to highlight this reality in film and media to highlight God’s power and redemption. 

That’s according to the director and stars of the new PureFlix film “God’s Country Song,” who, in a sit-down interview with The Christian Post, reflected on how honesty in filmmaking can change hearts and minds, drawing viewers to the truth of the Gospel. 

“We all have heartbreak and issues, and I think we all want to relate to someone else,” Justin Gaston, who plays the lead in the film, told CP. “I think, especially as Christians, we need to be there with open arms; we're all messed up and all broken. We all are in need of a Savior. And just that honesty and admitting that, it’s a place where we connect with everyone instead of pretending to have everything together. … I think that being real and honest is just the way to connect with everyone.”

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And “God’s Country Song,” now streaming on PureFlix, candidly addresses the reality that the Christian journey and the road to redemption are not always easy.

The film follows Noah (Gaston), a charming yet troubled country singer who is determined to make it big in the music scene. However, while on the road to success, he’s informed he has a 5-year-old son, J.J., he didn't know existed. The boy’s mother, who Noah barely remembers, has passed away, and he’s tasked with raising the child alone. Struggling with a dependence on alcohol and a fractured relationship with his own father, Noah is faced with an ultimatum: Should he raise his child or leave his family behind to see his country music dream fulfilled? 

For director Johnny Remo, telling a story that dealt with the reality of addiction — and the hope of recovery — was personal. The Christian filmmaker revealed that after losing his daughter to heroin several years ago, he wanted to use his gift of storytelling to help others who might be struggling with addiction themselves. 

“It’s tough. It's just something you never get over, you never forget,” he said of losing his daughter.

“We wanted to do something to let people know that you can talk to family, you can talk to people, that your loved ones want to help. You can talk to medical people, that's what they do.”

Gaston echoed Remo’s sentiment, stressing that though the world is broken, “you’re not alone,” and God’s power is made evident in weakness — a reality highlighted in the film. 

“I would hope [viewers] take away from this movie God's love for you, human, especially in your lowest moment. When we're weak, that’s when He is strong. … A lot of times, we're just going through the motions, and we're relying on our own strength. And when you are at that lowest moment, you're at a place where you're desperate, the amazing thing is that God didn't turn away from you in your pride and all those things. He was just always there."

The film also stars Academy Award nominee Mariel Hemingway, John Laughlin, Christopher Michael, Justene Alpert, JJ Miller and country music star Coffey Anderson ("Country Ever After"). Anderson and Gaston both sing in the film, which features 15 original songs, including the theme song, “Being The Man.”

Alpert, who plays Leeann, a social worker who has been caring for J.J. following his mother’s death (and eventually, Noah’s love interest), said she hopes the film's portrayal of overcoming struggles and relying on God's grace resonates with audiences who are navigating their own trials.

“Everyone experiences trauma or grief at some point in their life, and to show the messy part of that and the process of overcoming that is so important to show in films,” she said. “That's how storytellers make that change in other people's lives. And I think it's so important to tell people that you can't have a second chance and you're never alone.”

Released just ahead of Father’s Day, “God’s Country Song” also tackles the importance of fatherhood and sacrifice. Remo, who was raised by a single mother and had a fractured relationship with his own father, expressed hope that the film encourages men to step up and take the fatherless under their wing. 

“I had the greatest mom in the world, but it was very difficult for me because my mom could only teach me so much,” he said. “God gives you two parents for a reason, a very good reason. And she did the best that she could on the mom’s side, but you need that other side.”

A father of two girls himself, Gaston said his experiences as a Christian father who cares deeply about his children’s spiritual formation shaped his understanding of the complexities of Noah's role. 

“One of the greatest things that your children teach you is God's love towards you,” he said. “There’s nothing my children ever had to do. I've loved them before they were born, before they could ever say a word, and there's nothing that can take that away from me. In the same way, that's how God feels towards you. I didn't fully understand that, and I probably won't until I get to Heaven, but I'm getting a glimpse of that in my children.”

"God's Country Song" offers a refreshing and honest perspective on the Christian walk and reminds viewers that redemption is always possible. Remo said he hopes viewers find healing and hope in the story and walk away feeling less alone. 

“It’s OK to have an addiction. The love of your family, the love of God will get you through that. You just have to have faith and belief and talk about it,” he said. “So, that’s what we hope we did with the movie.”

"God's Country Song" is now streaming on PureFlix.

Leah M. Klett is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: [email protected]

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Thandiwe newton in ‘god’s country’: film review | sundance 2022.

The Emmy award-winning actress stars in Julian Higgins’ thriller about a college professor’s escalating feud with two hunters.

By Lovia Gyarkye

Lovia Gyarkye

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A solitary woman’s grief lures us into God’s Country , Julian Higgins’ slow-burn drama. Crisp, steady shots of snow-powdered mountainous terrain sustain us. And a brash, violent feud traps us, making it impossible to look away from this often exhilarating, if occasionally overcooked, film.

Based on mystery writer James Lee Burke’s short story, “Winter Light,” God’s Country follows university professor Sandra Guidry (an arresting Thandiwe Newton ) navigating the rocky, unpredictable landscape of mourning. Death haunts the film’s opening sequences, as a solemn Sandra oversees her mother’s cremation and later buries the ashes. Upon returning home from the makeshift funeral, she spots an unfamiliar red pick-up truck in her driveway. Annoyed, she leaves a note for the trespassers: This is private property, and they need to find another parking spot. The next day, she sees the truck again and finds her crumpled note buried in the snow.

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With the departure of its ceo, sundance now must chart a new course, sundance sets dates for 2025 fest, god's country.

Venue: Sundance Film Festival (Premieres) Cast: Thandiwe Newton, Jeremy Bobb, Joris Jarsky, Jefferson White, Kai Lennox, Tanaya Beatty Director: Julian Higgins Screenwriters: Shaye Ogbonna, Julian Higgins

So begins a quiet and vicious week-long feud between Sandra and these strangers. As in Burke’s short story, the conflict is a war of attrition, with each party’s move escalating the stakes of the dispute. On day 2, Sandra confronts the two men, Nathan (a riveting Joris Jarsky) and Samuel ( Yellowstone ’s Jefferson White), who feign ignorance about her note. They came to hunt, and cutting through her property offers the easiest route to the forest. Sandra, polite and firm, urges them to find another way.

After Nathan and Samuel shoot an arrow into Sandra’s door in retaliation for her towing their car, she calls the police — or, in this case, Gus Wolf (Jeremy Bobb), the acting local sheriff. He sympathetically listens to her case before suggesting that she handle the dispute with the men herself. The particular politics of this rural town, composed of white and Indigenous people — many of whom hate the police — make the sheriff as much of an outsider as Sandra. But the professor insists they act, so the duo drive to confront the hunters, initiating the next level of their war.

Higgins and Shaye Ogbonna’s screenplay amplifies the thematic undercurrents of “Winter Lights” by making its central character a New Orleans-born middle-aged Black woman. While the short story’s narrative wrestled with its retired college professor protagonist’s masculinity, the film ambitiously injects racial, gender and geographical tensions into the mix, to uneven, but nonetheless exciting effect.

Sandra sees the hunters’ provocations as an extension of a familiar transgression — the world’s disrespect for Black women — and has no problem taking matters into her own hands. Newton renders Sandra’s rage delicately, intimately. A few overacted moments don’t dampen the performance’s general restraint as Sandra relishes one-upping her opponents and grieves her mother, with whom she had a complicated relationship.

It’s disappointing, then, when the screenplay doesn’t always reflect that same level of trust or subtlety. Higgins and Ogbonna stuff the narrative with a well-intentioned but unwieldy backstory that registers as misaligned with the direction of Sandra’s character: She used to be a police officer in New Orleans but left the city after Hurricane Katrina, which made her realize the ease with which the city could abandon its Black residents and the futility of her role in the force. She moved north with her mother, a woman of the church who abhorred cold weather, to take this tenure-track position at a university staffed with mostly white people. Their already fractured relationship barely survived the move.

The purpose, I suppose, is to make Sandra more three-dimensional. But the backstory, revealed all at once, coupled with her sporadically shown fight to diversify her department (much to the chagrin of her colleague Arthur, played by Kai Lennox), makes Sandra seem more like a symbol than a person.

When the writing moves away from these blunter tendencies and settles into peeling back layers of Sandra’s personality and relationship to this town, God’s Country is much more effective. Sandra decides to follow the two men after another day of hunting, learning more about their lives and community. An initially poignant conversation about God with Nathan, whose mother Sandra learns is an organist like hers, abruptly turns sour — a twist that’s revealing of the role race has in guiding their interactions. And Sandra’s burgeoning maternal relationship with her student, Gretchen (Tanaya Beatty), along with a distressing interaction with Samuel, highlight the undercurrent of gender violence coursing through the story more forcefully than any one speech.

Quieter moments mesh beautifully with God’s Country ’s lush score by DeAndre James Allen-Toole and cinematography by DP Andrew Wheeler ( Small Crimes ). The film makes excellent use of Montana’s vast landscape (though the actual setting remains unspecified), which viewers absorb through establishing shots as well as Sandra’s regular runs through the woods, accompanied by her dog. The snowy peaks and canyons overwhelm the senses, their beauty adding a sinister layer to this dangerous game.

As the film moves to the seventh day, a creeping sense of catastrophe settles. Sandra becomes increasingly incensed with the hunters and feels more alone in her fight against them. Although astute viewers may easily predict God’s Country ’s final moments, the journey there is still a wild and satisfying one.

Full credits

Venue: Sundance Film Festival (Premieres) Production company(ies): [list production companies] Cast: Thandiwe Newton, Jeremy Bobb, Joris Jarsky, Jefferson White, Kai Lennox, Tanaya Beatty Director: Julian Higgins Screenwriters: Shaye Ogbonna, Julian Higgins Producers: Halee Bernard, Julian Higgins, Miranda Bailey, Amanda Marshall Executive producers: Anthony Ciardelli, Jason Beck Director of photography: Andrew Wheeler Production designer: Flora Ortega Costume designer: Kate Lindsay Editor: Justin LaForge Composer: DeAndre James Allen-Toole Casting director: Mark Bennett, C.S.A Sales: ICM

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The Real Life Faith Behind Mariel Hemingway's New Film, 'God's Country Song'

"God's Country Song" is among the newest films on the Pure Flix streaming platform, and this faith film includes the granddaughter of Nobel Prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway, Mariel Hemingway, in its cast.

The fictional tale follows a man with dreams of becoming a Country music star until his past catches up with him.

CBN News' Studio 5 traveled to Nashville for the red carpet premiere and the chance to sit down with the cast and creators behind the project. 

Filmmaker Johnny Remo is the writer and director.

"I co-wrote it with my co-writer, Dan Backman. I really enjoyed doing movies that have music in it, so Dan and I got together and came up with the idea. We wanted a story that, you know, today addiction is as big," Remo told CBN News.

"We wanted to deal with something that dealt with family and how important it is to have not only parents but have God in your family to fight all those demons. So, it's a story about biblically speaking about the pride before the fall," he continued.

***Please sign up for  CBN Newsletters  and download the  CBN News app  to ensure you keep receiving the latest news from a distinctly Christian perspective.***

This was also a passion project for Remo, who lost his daughter to her struggles with addiction. His passion personally touched cast members, like Hemingway. Like many, she's faced dark moments in her life. 

"You may know her grandfather Ernest – very famous, prolific writer – committed suicide. Her dad committed suicide. Her sister Margo committed suicide. So she started this organization where she goes around the world and talks about the same thing; is the addiction. It is the mental health. She says that is the reason that she did this movie," he explained.

Singer Justin Gaston and Justene Alpert lead the cast.

Gaston shared, "I play Noah Bryan, who's an aspiring Country artist, and I leave home to pursue my dreams and write as I'm about to, you know, get my break and go on this big tour, I find out I have a son named J.J."

"So, at this point in my life where I've worked so hard and it's like, am I going to selfishly pursue my dreams or am I going to, you know, step up and become a father?" he continued.

"I relate to Noah a lot because I left Louisiana, you know, at 17 years old, I went to New York and was in between Nashville and L.A., just pursuing music and pursuing acting. So, I can relate a lot to the fact of like losing time with family and friends to, like, pursue a dream. I think I can relate to Noah in the sense of he put so much on the line and gave so much up," he told CBN News.

Actress Justene Alpert sees some of herself in Leanne, the character she portrays in the story.

"I think Leanne just serves for me as a reminder of the kind of person that I want to be in my everyday life, is to love wholeheartedly and to take others in and just care for others more than yourself," Justene said.

"I love just the fundamental aspects of this movie that relates to everybody. People of faith or people who may have not found their faith yet. It's just a great reminder for a good human being. It's based on forgiveness, grace, and love, and then ultimately hope and faith," she continued.

"God's Country Song" is available now on the Pure Flix platform.

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God's Country

2022, Mystery & thriller/Drama, 1h 43m

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Critics Consensus

Led by an outstanding Thandiwe Newton, God's Country rewards patient viewers with a slow-burning but ultimately explosive story of inexorable conflict. Read critic reviews

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God's country videos, god's country   photos.

When a college professor in the remote mountains of the American West confronts two hunters she catches trespassing on her property, she’s drawn into an escalating battle of wills with catastrophic consequences. Based on the short story “Winter Light” by James Lee Burke.

Rating: R (Language)

Genre: Mystery & thriller, Drama

Original Language: English

Director: Julian Higgins

Producer: Miranda Bailey , Halee Bernard , Julian Higgins , Amanda Marshall

Writer: Shaye Ogbonna , Julian Higgins

Release Date (Theaters): Sep 16, 2022  wide

Release Date (Streaming): Oct 4, 2022

Runtime: 1h 43m

Distributor: IFC Films

Production Co: Cold Iron Pictures, Universal Films, The Film Arcade

Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.85:1)

Cast & Crew

Thandiwe Newton

Dan Gravage

Funeral Director

Tanaya Beatty

Jeremy Bobb

Joris Jarsky

Jefferson White

Julian Higgins

Shaye Ogbonna

Screenwriter

Miranda Bailey

Halee Bernard

Amanda Marshall

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‘God’s Country’ Review: A Solitary Woman Isn’t Left Alone for Long

In this simmering thriller, Thandiwe Newton plays a professor in rural Montana who confronts two hunters who say they’re just passing through.

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By Manohla Dargis

A woman alone is seldom left alone, especially if she’s young and pretty and content in her solitude. The world presses in no matter how she resists its intrusions; strangers demand her attention, her smiles and time. The sexual connotations are unmistakable and complicated, and they’re intensified when race enters the picture, as it does in the simmering thriller “God’s Country,” a story about a woman who wants to be left in peace and isn’t.

It’s clear from the start that Sandra (Thandiwe Newton) likes keeping the world at bay; it’s evident just in the location of her house in rural Montana. A neat-as-a-pin structure with large windows that give her great views, though not much privacy at night, the house is ringed by trees and perched against a majestic mountain range. It’s an idyllic location, far enough from the neighbors — one of her colleagues lives within view — but also near enough to town and to the small college where she teaches.

It’s a good life or seems to be, although Sandra’s mother, who lived with her, has recently died. Now Sandra just lives with her dog. She is still very much in mourning — melancholy seems to have settled on her like a heavy blanket, giving her an ineffable sadness that Newton conveys with expressive subtlety — but she seems otherwise OK. She takes runs with her dog, chops wood, goes to work and suffers through meetings without rolling her eyes (too much). She has few friends, really colleagues, but she engages with other people and, you grasp at once, she engages them on her own terms.

Her sovereignty is tested when a red pickup truck abruptly appears parked on her property within view of her front windows. She leaves a polite note on the truck, but the pickup continues to materialize, a bright, ugly portent of trouble that soon intensifies. The truck’s owners, two scowling brothers, Nathan and Samuel (Joris Jarsky and Jefferson White), like to hunt in the area and don’t care whose land they trample through. Things escalate quickly. Soon, Sandra and the brothers are squaring off on her property. “I’ve heard about you,” Samuel tells her, moving toward her as Nathan holds him back.

The movie is based on James Lee Burke’s “ Winter Light ,” a terse, moody short story that’s an atmospheric, interestingly ambiguous meditation on masculinity and ethics that turns into a war of self-annihilating will. In adapting the story, the filmmakers — it was directed by Julian Higgins, who wrote the script with Shaye Ogbonna — have made significant changes, notably to the protagonist, who is a white man in the original. They’ve also given Sandra a cumbersome back story that’s meant to illuminate her character and say something about race, but only weighs her down.

Higgins has a feel for the poetry of the landscape, and he and his cinematographer, Andrew Wheeler, make effective use of the region’s majestic, sometimes eerie beauty. It’s winter when the story opens and snow blankets the area, creating a soothing hush that can also seem ominous. When Sandra goes running with her dog, her solitude looks inviting yet is foreboding, and not simply because the dog scarcely looks capable of taking down a predator. This country, you know, doesn’t belong only to God.

The movie works best when it doesn’t over-explain and instead lets the land and the characters, the wide open spaces and the performances — especially Newton’s meticulously controlled turn — speak for themselves. In the original story, Burke writes of one of the trespassers, “He smiled while he talked, but his eyes did not go with his face.” Newton and some of the other actors (notably Jarksy and Jeremy Bobb as an ineffectual lawman) catch the subtleties of violence in that sentence admirably well. You don’t need to hear the threat to know the violence will soon come.

God’s Country Rated R for violence and language. Running time: 1 hour 42 minutes. In theaters.

Manohla Dargis has been the co-chief film critic of The Times since 2004. She started writing about movies professionally in 1987 while earning her M.A. in cinema studies at New York University, and her work has been anthologized in several books. More about Manohla Dargis

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Review: In ‘God’s Country,’ Thandiwe Newton strikes back against broken systems

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In Julian Higgins’ arresting, slow-burn thriller “God’s Country,” systems and people in positions of power meant to protect are the ones causing the harshest harm. A former New Orleans cop turned college professor, the unflinchingly outspoken Sandra (Thandiwe Newton) is on the receiving end of a dangerous torrent, left unchecked by the local authorities, that begins when two white men in a red truck illegally park on her secluded Montana property to hunt deer. What erupts from this boundary breaching are bursts of lingering grief, hovering microaggressions and outright systematic racism — pushing an unmoored Sandra toward a haunting and cathartic confrontation with long-buried wounds.

“They let my people drown,” Sandra tells the town’s acting sheriff, Wolf (Jeremy Bobb). She moved with her mother to this rugged, snowy countryside — evocatively captured in all its impassive danger by cinematographer Andrew Wheeler — to escape the trauma wrought from the American government leaving mainly African American citizens to languish in the Superdome following Hurricane Katrina. The incident disillusioned Sandra from ever wearing a badge again. If she couldn’t protect other Black folks, then how could she hope to safeguard her mother? And how do you participate in an institution that’s already proven to be broken? No matter how far Sandra runs, she can’t protect herself from America’s inherent racial inequities.

They affect her in visibly searing ways. The film opens with Sandra having her deceased mother cremated. It’s implied that her mom was never the same emotionally or psychologically following Katrina, making her a long-tail casualty of the devastating natural disaster. In the darkness of the unforgiving night, murmuring memories of flood waters invade Sandra’s nightmares. When it’s time to submit a list of candidates to her school’s dean for employment, her fellow (white) professors refuse to promise the inclusion of at least one person of color (they’d rather have exclusion than a dreaded “quota” system). And she discovers that an instructor is sexually harrassing a teacher’s assistant without any hint of repercussions coming his way.

So when these two white male hunters — a brawny yet sensitive Nathan (Joris Jarsky) and an innately vicious Samuel (Jefferson White) — trespass on her land, she is infuriated when the sheriff is not only incapable of protecting her property but is deferential to the men and critical of Sandra for escalating the situation. Emboldened, the two men continue to ignore Sandra’s wishes for them to respect her limits. Over the course of seven days, the disparate, hostile parties engage in intimidation to quell each other but only further escalate their passive-aggressive skirmishes.

‘God’s Country’ is ‘the perfect example of critical race theory,’ says Thandiwe Newton

The Sundance premiere of a film about a Black woman confronting white hunters on her property explores timely themes of race and gender.

Jan. 28, 2022

It’s fascinating to see the intricate path Newton takes from cheerful academic to an intense woman on the edge. For the actress, it’s all in the eyes. They can turn mournful, gentle, dangerous — matching a physicality that barely betrays her deliberately hidden interior emotions. Within Sandra, Newton braids every thread of generational trauma into a lived-in symbol of defiance and anger.

One wishes the film better enfolded Indigenous culture within the narrative: While we do see a few hints, what’s given is not enough. And Nathan’s actions receive too little grounding to make sense.

Still, the final bloodletting, when Sandra finally faces her tormentors, is potent and disturbing. “God’s Country” is a film that wants to disarm you at every turn, and it often succeeds with a transfixing, acute spirit of retribution against society’s toxic racial and gender power dynamics.

'God's Country'

Rating: R, for language Running time: 1 hour, 43 minutes Playing: In general release; available on demand Oct. 4

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‘God’s Country’ Review: Thandiwe Newton Anchors a Thriller of Escalating Disputes in Big Sky Country

The star is on fine form as a newcomer at odds with rural Montana locals in freshman director Julian Higgins' involving drama-cum-thriller.

By Dennis Harvey

Dennis Harvey

Film Critic

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Race, class and cultural divides are probed with intriguing understatement in “God’s Country.” Julian Higgins’ first feature can be taken as a drama with thriller elements or a low-key thriller with atypical dramatic nuance, working either way as a quietly effective balance between genre, social issue and character study elements. Based on a James Lee Burke story, it stars Thandiwe Newton as a college professor whose fish-out-of-water status in rural Montana is exacerbated when she runs afoul of trespassing working-class hunters. Too modest in scope and impact to be a major breakout title, this Sundance premiere should nonetheless attract streaming outlets and other home-format providers.

The screenplay by Higgins and Shaye Ogbonna (who co-wrote 2017’s impressive, underseen crime tale “Lowlife”) is a “western” in that it’s on the laconic side verbally, at least most of the time. Thus it’s a while before we realize that the loved one Sandra Guidry (Newton) buries at the start is her long-ailing mother, with whom she’d moved from New Orleans for a tenure-track job teaching public speaking. Indeed, it takes some time before this protagonist speaks at all: Living alone now with her dog in a secluded house, she has little need for words outside the classroom. Still, her sense of grieving privacy violated is palpable when she returns from a morning run to find an unoccupied pickup parked on her property, a stone’s throw from her porch.

The note she leaves on its windshield is ignored, and it’s back the next day, when she gets to meet the scruffy, somewhat intimidating Cody brothers, Nathan (Joris Jarsky) and Samuel (Jefferson White from “Yellowstone”). They aren’t very apologetic about using her property as a deer-hunting gateway sans permission, nor is she very tolerant of their uninvited presence. Once they return a third day, she tows their car; in retaliation, an arrow is shot into her front door.

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At this point, the police get involved — that is, Deputy Gus Wolf (Jeremy Bobb), who is in fact the only cop in a 300-mile jurisdiction. He seems to belittle Sandra’s complaint, telling her, “Around here, contacting authorities only makes this worse.” What he doesn’t mention is that his office (and a colleague currently on forced leave) has in fact recently had a serious dispute with the same ornery, hard-luck local community she’s now at odds with, making him a problematic ally at best.

“God’s Country” keeps upsetting expectations of a predictable revenge thriller, even as it seems to embrace some of those tropes. While born-and-raised residents like the Codys — who live and work in far humbler circumstances — may resent Sandra as a privileged outsider, she herself feels excluded. Not least at work, where as an African-American woman she’s isolated amidst an all-white, mostly male faculty. Her neighbor (Kai Lennox) is also the chair of her university department, and when push comes to shove, probably won’t defend her concerns either on campus or off.

These and other sources of tension lead her into some ill-advised decisions. The script is savvy enough to provide scenes (notably one with Nathan in a church) in which we realize the people she might well view as hostile, disrespectful rednecks have their own triggering causes for resentment and rash action, too. A late revelation of Sandra’s pre-academic profession might come off over-contrived in a less thoughtful film. But Newton pulls it off in another tête-à-tête scene (this time with Gus), and her speech then adds a further layer to a story that makes potent sense of red-tinted dream or flashback imagery scattered throughout.

As ever, Newton is a compelling and emotionally communicative presence, easily sustaining viewer interest in this restrained, oft-silent role. Supporting roles are expertly cast and played, their actors providing sufficient texture that we can do without much in the way of character backstories. The filmmakers’ approach keeps us in edgy anticipation of a more conventionally violent melodrama than the one we get — at least until a fadeout one might argue disappoints by finally, if reluctantly, delivering just that.

Until then, at least, “God’s Country” (the title of which hints at another running theme of faith and doubt) is admirable for avoiding caricature within conflict, and granting dramatic personae the depth to hesitate before giving in to their angriest first impulses. While some visual aspects have a nondescript feel that won’t lose anything on the small screen, the film does stay aesthetically true to its low-key, melancholic tenor by presenting a Montana countryside less spectacular than stark, color-muted and overcast. DeAndre James Allen-Toole’s original score is likewise distinguished by judicious restraint where from-the-get-go “ominousness” might normally be applied.

Reviewed at Landmark Embarcadero Cinemas, San Francisco, Jan. 21, 2022. In Sundance Film Festival (Premieres). Running time: 102 MIN.

• Production: A Film Arcade, Cold Iron Pictures presentation of a Cold Iron Pictures production. (World sales: ICM, Los Angeles.) Producers: Miranda Bailey, Halee Bernard, Julian Higgins, Amanda Marshall. Executive producers: Jason Beck, Anthony Ciardelli.
• Crew: Director: Julian Higgins. Screenplay: Higgins, Shaye Ogbonna, based on the short story “Winter Light” by James Lee Burke. Camera: Andrew Wheeler. Editor: Justin Laforge. Music: DeAndre James Allen-Toole.
• With: Thandiwe Newton, Jeremy Bobb, Joris Jarsky, Jefferson White, Kai Lennox, Tanaya Beatty.

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DVD Review: GOD’S COUNTRY SONG

Home » DVD Review: GOD’S COUNTRY SONG

One day Noah discovers that he may have a young son he didn’t know about. The boy’s mother passed away, and lawyers are asking for a paternity test. At first Noah tries to avoid the situation—he hasn’t had a great relationship with his own father, so how could he be a good father himself?! But once he meets J.J. (JJ Miller), his mind is made up, and he decides to take him in. Noah thinks this might be exactly what he needs to make him a better person. And it isn’t long before he gets a sign that things are looking up—he gets invited to go on tour with Colt Young (Coffey Anderson). The only stipulation is that the tour will be alcohol-free.

Noah quickly finds it difficult to balance being a new father, and rehearsing for his tour. The anniversary of his brother’s death also starts to approach, and things get stressful and emotional. He turns to drinking, and starts heading down a dark, destructive spiral. If he doesn’t find a way to turn things around, and keep his pride in check, he could lose everything he’s worked for, and push away those that love him.

God’s Country Song is a PureFlix release. These films can be a bit melodramatic at times, but usually have a positive message and story, and a bit of a faith-based slant to them—ll of which are true here. Everything seems to be going great for Noah. He has a new son, his career is about to take off, and he’s been hitting it off with JJ’s caretaker, Leanne (Justene Alpert). However, it’s hinted at early on that Noah has had some problems with alcohol in the past. It’s evident that things are going too well, and this is the literal pride before the fall—you’re just waiting for him to take that drink, so that his perfect life will come crashing down. As Noah starts to spiral, his manager Larry is there as his conscience, constantly trying to warn the young man to not get too prideful, but he can’t force Noah to make the right choice&mash;Noah must decide on his own to head down the right path. Once Noah hits rock bottom, he turns to his faith and family for help.

Star Justin Gaston gives a strong performance as this young man struggling with his demons, and his musical performances are excellent. We often see Noah either practicing his songs on his own, or singing in front of a crowd of cheering fans in a bar or club. The music, in addition to being catchy and entertaining, also helps to inform Noah’s emotional state, and adds a believability to the fact Noah’s career is ready to take off. The supporting cast is also great, especially Christopher Michael as Noah’s moral guide Larry, and the iconic Mariel Hemingway as Noah’s mother.

While the trailer seems to focus on Noah becoming a father to JJ and trying to juggle these new responsibilities, this is actually just a small part of the story. The film focuses more on Noah’s career, and struggling with past demons of losing his brother, and his relationship with his father.

Mill Creek Entertainment has released God’s Country Song only on DVD format for physical media, but it is also available digitally in HD. The SD picture looks quite good, but lacks that little bit of extra clarity and sharpness that a Blu-ray would provide. The audio track provides clear dialogue throughout, and the musical performances sound really great. The DVD disc comes packed in a standard DVD keepcase with a cardboard slipcover. The disc is pretty barebones, offering just the film’s trailer as bonus material.

Film : (1:44:50)

• 480i / Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1
• Audio: English 5.1 Dolby Digital
• Subtitles: English SDH

Final Thoughts:

God’s Country Song is pretty standard PureFlix fare, with the lead character struggling with past demons and turning to faith and family in his time of need. Though, this movie does not have a huge focus on the faith aspect, as much as some of PureFlix’s other releases. In addition to the drama, the film is also filled with some excellent original music performances, which was probably the highlight for me. Mill Creek’s DVD provides decent picture and sound, but is light on bonus material. It’s a solid selection for those who enjoy these types of films.

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God’s Country Song [DVD]

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Tags: DVD , God's Country Song , Johnny Remo , Justin Gaston , Mariel Hemingway , Mill Creek Entertainment , PureFlix

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