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Knee Deep is a mystery, a comedy, a deft character study and, ultimately, a bracing critique of how development is contributing to the disappearance of the family farm.
--Jurors for The Maysles Brothers Award, Denver FF
A stranger-than-truth tale both amusing and appalling…
--Dennis Harvey, Variety
One of 2007's best 'believe it or not' documentaries, Michael Chandler's amazing documentary Knee Deep is a rural Rashomon. Everyone has a version of events, and like the masterful movie it most resembles, 1992's Brother's Keeper, it is up to us to figure it all out. While it may be cliché to say it, the craftiest writer in the world couldn't create these people. ..While one has to remember that all "true life" tales are being filtered by the creator's camera (and choices), this is the rare effort that feels rightfully authentic. One of the best documentaries on closed-off communities and human politics ever mounted….A compelling cinematic experience…Highly Recommended
--Bill Gibron, DVDTalk
Darkly satiric. Chandler, whose Forgotten Fires detailed the KKK's burning of black churches in a small Southern town, is a master at gauging the values of a community in crisis.
--Erin Clements, Timeout New York
Knee Deep, a relentlessly surprising feature by Michael Chandler, plays like a rural film noir directed by Errol Morris. In its stab at explaining an attempted murder in Franklin County, the film coherently lays out a story that doesn’t make any sense, while leaving ample room to explore themes of urban development, the rural work ethic, and the curious overlap between truth and mythmaking. It’s also hilarious and full of memorable characters, and we can hope the film will receive a great deal more local attention and screenings.
--Chris Gray, The Phoenix
One of the strangest, most deadpan, most intricately constructed docs at this year's festival…A satiric study of rural American values wrapped in an attempted murder mystery. Funny and chilling, beautifully shot, cunningly edited, and eye-opening on every level.
--Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel
With his documentary Knee Deep, filmmaker Michael Chandler etches out a resonant and darkly comic glimpse of what happened when a young man foresaw the destruction of his only dream.
--Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
The fact that this film has a strong sense of the ironic and a darkly humorous streak makes it all the more compelling to watch. It’s my favorite documentary that I saw at the festival.
--Jeremiah Rancourt, The Maine Edge
"Knee Deep" provides not only a tongue-in-cheek account of a true crime story in the words of Osborne's family and neighbors, but also a peek into farming as a way of life that is swiftly vanishing.
--Joel Elliott, Morning Sentinel
A thoroughly enjoyable Fargo / I Love You to Death-esque portrait of a hilariously close-knit family … a compelling look at a simple man driven to extremes, and what it takes to maintain a way of life.
--Zack Smith, The Independent Weekly
Audience members' jaws may be agape all through this strange-but-true story, about a sheltered Maine farmboy who attempts the matricide of his estranged, negligent mom…But what's even more shocking about the attempted murder is how most of the townspeople don't blame him for committing the act. Yeah, it's that kind of documentary.
--Craig Lindsey, Raleigh News & Observer
Chandler's work furthers the current documentary approach of showing every side and every nuance, shifting the viewer's sympathies with almost every cut.
--Michael Fox, KQED Arts & Culture
Interesting and intimate and at the same time about big topics like class and the American way. I especially liked the onion peeling nature, where the story keeps getting deeper and more complex. Great.
--Debbie Hoffmann, director, Long Night's Journey Into Day
This is a huge film. Josh’s sense of desperation, hurt and betrayal is astounding. The sister is heart-rending. Donna is straight out of The Maltese Falcon. And The Pie Lady is like a wonderful tragic chorus. What have these people done to anybody but get up and work like rented mules for decades? So much is contained here: the end of family farming, the destruction of everything by the real estate machine, and perhaps most profoundly, the decline of whites--what I mean by that is these are proud, self-sustaining folk who have always felt themselves to be an integral part of the workings of the country and the economy. Now, in Friedman’s Flat World they’re being cast aside. What is going to become of them? There’s a level where this is a kind of Sam Shepard tale, but there’s another level below that that is epically tragic, because it makes us see that something is indeed coming to an end in America. I kept thinking while I was watching, “This is a Robert Frost poem, no, it’s a Faulkner novel, no, it’s Frost...”
--Anthony Walton, author of Mississippi: An American Journey
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