This is your first film review that I mostly disagreed with, of course, the caveat being that I have a personal bias towards Green as being one of my favorite working directors.

Nevertheless, I do agree that Undertow is his weakest film finished up to date, all due to the script. Unfortunately, this being his first foray into the established Hollywood realm, some growing pains in that political arena were to be expected from a director used to being the complete and independent auteur. I still thought other aspects of the film were better than how you have portrayed them, however.

I thought the acting was superb particularly from Jamie Bell, who is British, playing a poor Southern redneck. This was all Direction and Green flexed his mastery in getting the best performances available from his cast. Of course, we’ve seen this before from talented Brit actors (think Mimi Driver and Eddie Izzard in “The Riches”), but the devil in the details of this aspect of Southern life is what brought home the poignancy and visual poetry for me, an understanding from a Director in intimately knowing the flaws and foibles of this aspect of our American society.

Also, the symbiotic working relationship between Green and Orr continues to be one of the most brilliant collaborations between a Director and DP in film today. The lighting, the mood, the anxiety and manipulated tension, the camera movement, and the mise-en-scene, are all reasons, almost independent of each other, of why this film is a must see, in my opinion.

I am still looking forward to Green’s next offering, Snow Angels, and can only hope that the more Green gains creative clout within the hated established Hollywood environment, which pays a hell of a lot more money but which can be at times a creative and political quagmire, the better he will be able to get back to the kind of films where he has showcased his genius.

Also, perhaps unrelated, a few months back I felt a sense of disappointment when I saw on YouTube that Green had directed an ESPN commercial. To this day I cannot explain my disappointment even though in the business I work in (news) I have to do things that are not that creative for money every day, imperfect as I am in not being able to consistently realize my ideals of not compromising my art for money. A better educated person than myself in the strengths and artistic merits of advertising campaigns needs to criticize the following commercial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmvJiv_6YeA

Respectfully,

Angel Uriel Perales