The Locusts

Some locusts live underground for a long time, many years, before emerging as adults. Flyboy (Jeremy Davies) is one such creature. A drifter comes to town on his way to California, and takes a job at a feed lot. He is our introduction to the disturbed southern family that runs the lot. Father is gone, so mother is firm and controlling. She chooses a different worker each night to be her stud. Flyboy, the youngest son, is hurt by the loss of father and the strictness of mother, and he has drawn himself into an emotional cocoon. The drifter, with the help of Flyboy’s sister, helps the kid to emerge as a man. The film is interesting and daring. The look of the film is fabulous. But the movie sounds too written. It is not a matter of delivery, it is that the words the actors say sound too much like monologues. On the whole, the film is worth seeing, especially given that this is the director’s first film, but it does not achieve the greatness so many other first films do.