Film

The Neon Bible

Name: The Neon Bible
Genre: Drama
Released: 1995
Cast: Jacob Tierney, Drake Bell, Gena Rowlands, Diana Scarwid, Denis Leary

Coming-of-age
Very dark
Slow-burning

A teenage boy on a train remembers his fractured childhood in 1940s Georgia—a place of rigid churches, simmering violence, and one grandmother who loved him fiercely. Terence Davies's adaptation of John Kennedy Toole is visually gorgeous and emotionally raw, a film about how small towns break people and how some manage to survive anyway. It's meditative rather than plot-driven, asking you to sit with hurt.

TMDb rating

3.1

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