“Western,” the third installment in the Ross Brothers’ Americana trilogy, is decidedly of a piece with its predecessors, “45365” and “Tchoupitoulas,” which are portraits of a small town in Ohio, and New Orleans at night, respectively. The three films are immersive experiences, and feel lived-in in a way that reveals the pair’s ability to meld into the fabric of the place itself in order to capture their subjects. It’s apparent that they get to know their subjects and environment so well in the process of making "Western" that what appears onscreen is the symbiotic relationship of filmmaker and material. The result is a film that truly captures the essence of a place, and creates an experience of it for the viewer.
“Tchoupitoulas” was a heady and intoxicating brew of NOLA nightlife that washed over the audience in sort of a hypnotic mist. “Western” is not that, because the place, as subject, is not that. Eagle Pass, Texas sits on top of the Texas-Mexico border, and has...
