This film reaches out and grabs you, much like a sudden undertow. Director David Gordon Green’s other critically acclaimed features, "George Washington" and "All the Real Girls," offered the languid, poetic landscape and language of the South. "Undertow" carries you through rip tides of emotion, along sweltering dirt roads and causes you to break a sweat.

Following the unexpected return of their Uncle Deel, recently released from prison, brothers Chris and Tim Munn are faced with a horrifying reality. Their father John is dead, and 16-year-old Chris could turn out to be the main suspect in the murder. Chris has been in scrapes with the law for a while now, and his father is tired of bailing him out.

The boys take off from their dirt poor farm, leaving Deel for dead. They carry with them a terrifying truth, and a treasure of sorts. Dusty Georgia roads lead them toward Watertown, down the coast, where Chris wants to work on the docks, and they hope to find their grandfather. Chris is certain that the law is after them and they soon learn that Deel is doggedly hunting them as well.

This closely woven tale of two generations of brothers, each holding a carefully guarded secret, is dense with the texture of circumstance. The simple yet complex circumstance of one’s birth is central. So, too, is how we choose to present ourselves to the world; what do we hold back or try to take from those people or elements around us? Even young Tim, played with gut wrenching intensity by 13-year-old Devon Alan, conceals the true nature of his illness, which is diagnosed as an anxiety disorder.

Dermot Mulroney ("About Schmidt") as the boys’ father John has a cauldron full of family secrets, which temper his expectations of each of his sons. John’s brother Deel – played by that sweet guy Josh Lucas from "Sweet Home Alabama" and most recently the forgiving father in "Around the Bend" – is like a hurricane blown in, leaving destruction in his path. And the remarkable Jamie Bell, perhaps best known as the British "Billy Elliot," does a great turn as Chris, a full-blown, angst-ridden, American teenager, complete with southern accent. What does he suspect, or possibly know, of his relationship with Deel, which leads them to a baptism of truth.

Tim Orr’s fine cinematography again takes us to a littered bucolic setting, with hard scrap metal edges, as he did in Green’s "George Washington" and "All the Real Girls." Populated with flawed human beings, photographed close-up and close in, the shades of gray of their personalities show. Shot in revealing color, with only an occasional stark, and appropriate, take in black and white, Orr’s visuals compliment the story completely.

Water is often regarded as having rejuvenating and healing properties. When you are caught in an undertow, its swift, deadly powers are evident.

For more about director David Gordon Green and his filmmaking process, please see the interview, which follows.