A LONG WINTER
(director/writer: Andrew Haugh; screenwriter: based on a novella by Colm Tóibín; cinematographer: André Turpin; editor: Jonatham Alberts; music: Paul Haslinger; cast: Fred Hechinger (Mike), Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Lester), Caitríona Balfe (Louise), Kit Connor (Tom), D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai (Jimmy, servant cook), Anthony Timpano (young cop), Manuel Garcia-Rulfo (Joe, family friend), Camille Sullivan (Aunt Ruth), David Furr (Ben, neighbor), Martin Freeman (mother’s brother); Runtime: 117; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Andrew Haigh, Tristan Goligher, Chad Oakes, Mike Frislev, Michael Elliott; MUBI, Film 4; 2026)
“Chilling and dull arthouse coming-of-age film that’s not for everyone.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Brit director Andrew Haugh (“All of Us Strangers”/”Lean on Pete”) gives us his latest, an accomplished and austere story about loss and acceptance set in the wintry Colorado Rockies. It’s based on the Irish writer Colm Tobin’s 2006 short story, that’s changed from the 1930s Spanish Pyrenees to the mountain landscape of Colorado in the 1950s.
During the time of the Korean War, Mike (Fred Hechinger), a young man wrestling with being gay, returns to his family cabin farm (they breed chickens and rabbits) from a year away working on a farm in Iowa. It’s a dying rural mountain mining town where the mine is shut down and things are bleak. Tommy (Kit Connor), Mike’s younger brother, is a soldier in the Korean War, who wants to see the world. Louise (Caitríona Balfe), their unhappy mom, is an alcoholic, who hates living in such an isolated place. One day during a blizzard Louise disappears rather than go ‘cold turkey.’
The long winter that follows has the family and friends trying to find her, led by the abusive, taciturn family patriarch Lester (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), an old-fashioned man set in his ways. During the search Lester bares his tortured inner-self.
The heart-felt performance by Ebon Moss-Bachrach elevates the haunting downer story. It’s filmed at a slow pace, but with gorgeous location photography by the French Canadian DP André Turpin (the Canadian Rockies subbing for the Colorado Rockies). It’s a poignant but rather chilling and dull arthouse coming-of-age film that’s not for everyone.
It played at the Telluride Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 10/7/2026 GRADE: B
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