Film Review: PEACE IN THE VALLEY: Tyler Riggs’ Movie Features an Astonishingly Good Lead Turn by Brit Shaw [Tribeca 2022]

Peace in the Valley Review

Peace in the Valley (2022) Film Review from the 21st Annual Tribeca Film Festival, a movie written and directed by Tyler Riggs and starring Brit Shaw, Dendrie Taylor, Jordan Cox, Michael Aaron Milligan, Michael Abbott Jr., Nicky Buggs, Alex Van, Guy Messenger, Virginia Kirby, Jp Lambert, Nakia Dillard, Nikkita Johnson, William Samiri, Jaclyn Beck, Nicholas Cordts, Zander Gikas, Sidney Baxley and LaTonya Holmes.

Tyler Riggs is a director who commands forceful performances from his actors. In his film from last year’s Tribeca Film Festival, God’s Waiting Room, all of the actors (including Riggs, himself) were superb regardless of how I felt about the movie itself. In Riggs’s new film, Peace in the Valley, Brit Shaw is absolutely astonishing in what is one of the best lead performances I’ve seen by an actress so far this year.

Peace in the Valley opens with a happy family (two parents and a child) going into the supermarket to pick up a few items. When gunshots ensue, Ashley Rhodes (Shaw) is anxious to go see about the safety of her son Jesse (William Samiri). Ashley’s husband John (Michael Abbott Jr.) goes to see about Jesse after placing Ashley in a safe spot where people flee the scene to hide. Unfortunately, John is killed.

This film is very accurate in the way it portrays the scenes that follow the death of John. Ashley’s mom Margaret (Dendrie Taylor) tries to offer consoling words but Ashley is mourning the loss of John. Ashley can’t keep up the day-to-day routines which include cleaning dirty dishes. While Ashley tries to move forward and gets involved briefly with a guy at a bar (Jordan Cox), things don’t end well when Ashley refuses to have sex with the man.

Jesse has a bond with his uncle Billy who is John’s twin brother (he’s played by Abbott Jr. again) but Billy is more or less a loser whose interaction with the family has interesting developments as the plot develops. In the interim, Ashley tries a support group to cope with her grief and meets a woman named Sandra (Nicky Buggs) who has suffered great loss as well. The main scene between Shaw and Buggs’s characters in a diner is absolutely perfect and both actresses amazingly bring to life the idea of how difficult it is to cope with the loss of a loved one. Watching these two perform is nothing short of electrifying.

Ashley soon believes she is pregnant and buys several pregnancy tests to make sure the final result she receives is an accurate one. Ashley has an awkward interaction with the store clerk here and this kind of realistic scene is filmmaker Riggs’ specialty. Another scene between Ashley and her doctor (a well-cast Guy Messenger) is so true to life that it can haunt the viewer as to how frighteningly realistic it feels.

This film focuses a lot on the relationship between Ashley and Jesse, her son. When the cable goes out because the bill hasn’t been set up to be paid correctly, Jesse gets overly anxious and Ashley must try to steer Jesse on another path because she doesn’t have time (or possibly the money) to spend time on the phone with the cable company. I loved the scenes that the mother shares with her son and they were heartbreaking and touching throughout the whole film.

Brit Shaw is simply outstanding. Every scene she’s in is raw, real and thought-provoking as Ashley is a woman with seemingly nowhere to turn. When she has sex with a key character, disaster ensues. She must seek the advice and comfort of her mother and when she does, the resulting scene between Ashley and Margaret is phenomenal as the viewer can truly feel for Shaw’s Ashley who is definitely hanging on by a thin thread.

I liked that the movie offered a glimmer of hope among the despair through the movie’s ending. Riggs doesn’t spare the audience any of the difficult scenes that another movie may have avoided. Shaw’s character is like a woman on the edge who must either jump off or step up and come back to life. She must decide if she wants to fulfill her role as a mother and since, of course, she loves her son, Ashley tries to find some sort of stability in her life even though a key plot revelation throws everything off course.

This film is very affecting. It is technically well made and has a number of scenes which ring true and make the audience realize how one devastating event can lead to life spiraling out of control. Let’s not mention how true the premise feels given real life recent events.

Peace in the Valley is a movie that deserves to earn Brit Shaw a lot of acclaim. Tyler Riggs has helped Shaw achieve greatness in a role that hits close to home for anyone who has ever lost someone too soon and had to move forward in life with little direction from others. Though the movie is very heavy, it is a successful effort that should certainly be seen.

Rating: 8.5/10

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