Did you first learn about the movie Finestkind through a particular viral clip? You know the one: Tommy Lee Jones shuffles into a donut shop clutching a paper bag, and … well, if you’ve seen it, you remember it. But to glimpse at Finestkind is to literally miss out on the bigger picture.
The drama from writer-director Brian Helgeland (42), and costarring Jenna Ortega (Scream VI), is about two fisherman brothers caught in a drug-smuggling-scheme gone wrong. And it’s packed with powerful performances and strong character interplay. (You know, the sort of things that give four- or five- minute viral clips context and emotional heft …) So, why stop at a minnow-sized thrill when you can have a whale of a time appreciating the whole movie, and its coastal cinematography, affecting depictions of fraternal and father-son relationships and tremendous acting from the likes of Jones and Ben Foster (Hell or High Water)?
Unphased by the aquatic wordplay above, and ready to take a deep dive (ha!) into Finestkind? Read on for our big reasons why this movie deserves to be watched from bow all the way to stern. (That was the last one, we promise!) Trust us – that viral clip has got nothing on the choppy-watered thrill ride that is streaming Finestkind in its entirety.
1. The boat scenes. Yes, the boat scenes.
In Finestkind, Tom Eldridge (Ben Foster) leads his fishing crew on scallop-dredging excursions off the coast of New Bedford, Massachusetts. What could seem like mundane labor – lugging shells onto the boat’s deck, and methodically shucking them one by one – looks extraordinary here. Wind nips at faces, and rough waves threaten to tip the vessel over. The fishing scenes in Finestkind make the life of a commercial fisherman feel like the only one worth living. This is a testament, in part, to the work of Crille Forsberg, the movie’s director of photography.
In addition to the gorgeous camerawork, the performances do a lot to sell the idea that a recent college grad like Charlie (Toby Wallace), younger half-bro to Tom, would toss aside his corporate goals in favor of a spot on Tom’s boat. Tom and his crewmates – Skeemo (Aaron Stanford), Nunes (Scotty Tovar) and Costa (Ismael Cruz Cordova) – make the job look like a fraternity. For Charlie, a bookish kid who’s long wished to connect with his sea-faring sibling, the world of Tom’s boat is one filled with brothers he never had, and one that offers a kind of freedom that can’t be found between office walls. If the day-to-day grind of a scallop fisherman has never been your calling, then may we suggest that a couple of hours under the influence of Finestkind may make you want to spend your days knee-deep in mollusks.
2. The father-and-son relationships keep it real
Certainly, one does not cast an actor as seasoned as Oscar winner Tommy Lee Jones (The Fugitive), and not expect him to turn out a great performance, but what else can one say? As veteran sea captain Ray Eldridge, Jones kills it. He expertly telegraphs the hurt and regret simmering just beneath his gruff exterior. Ray has spent a lifetime pushing away anyone who’s dared venture close to him, including his only child, Tom, and his now ex-wife, Donna (Lolita Davidovich). Now facing an uncertain future, he sees that Tom has inherited his disposition and love of the sea, but that the kid doesn’t seem to carry the gene for financial acumen or temper control. How can a stubborn seadog who’s never been able to connect with his son steer Tom in the right direction before it’s too late?
There are ham-fisted ways this narrative could play out, and Finestkind manages to sidestep all of them in favor of using the Finestkind, Ray’s cherished boat, as the subject through which Ray and Tom funnel their love and frustration toward one another. These men of few words don’t monologue about how their pasts have shaped them into the cranks they are now. Instead, they ask after the Finestkind. They assure the protection of the Finestkind. They even [Warning: SPOILER ALERT!] put their lives on the line for the Finestkind. But, hint: Few of their actions are really about the boat.
Though granted less screen-time, the relationship between Charlie and his father, Donna’s second husband, Gary (Tim Daly), is equally surprising in the way it bypasses convention. Gary is a lawyer who isn’t wild about Charlie performing dangerous work on the open ocean all summer. But he sucks up his grievances, content in the knowledge that the boy will head to law school come fall having gotten these fishing adventures out of his system. Think you see where this is going? Charlie tells the gobsmacked Gary that he has reservations about taking the corporate path, posing an alternate plan in which he crews for Tom indefinitely, and then, wait a minute, Gary … doesn’t respond the way most films would have him do. It’s as though Gary, wealthy and career-minded as he may be, is a flesh-and-blood person who puts the happiness of his offspring before his own plans. You don’t get that kind of nuance in a viral clip, now, do you?
3. The ending. The real ending.
Note, we are not talking about the Tommy Lee Jones scene that went viral. That scene – the paper-bag scene – actually occurs 10 minutes prior to the film’s concluding sequence. And while the Jones-in-the-donut-shop-with-a-paper-bag scene deserves its viral fame, you’ve got to stream the whole movie to see how artfully it sets up its final moments. It’d be a Finestcrime, so to speak, to give away too much here, but suffice it to say that the themes of forging one’s own path in life, and fathers’ and sons’ unwavering devotion to one another play out beautifully in an ending scene that shows years of familial hurts ebbing away with the tide. And, no, the scenery ain’t bad, either.
WATCH NOW: Finestkind
Finestkind
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