In 1932 in Kingdom County, Vermont, a fire destroys much of the family's hay. They can't feed all their cattle and they can't get more hay, so they have to sell some of their cattle. Quebec Bill used to run whiskey, and that may be the only way to make money. Quebec Bill's father disappeared, according to Aunt Cordelia, as did many who ran whiskey. Quebec Bill came back to Vermont because of his father after working on ranches and as a lumberjack in Montana. Quebec Bill's brother-in-law Henry has run whiskey before, but he's reluctant to now. Wild Bill wants to go along but his mother Evangeline? has to be persuaded. Rat, who helps run the farm, also goes along but isn't sure he wants to. The group crosses the border into Canada, where whiskey is legal. Two monks see nothing wrong with helping out and they agree to store what the guys get. But the guys have no money. They have to steal from the family that sells most of the whiskey, and violence becomes necessary. Wild Bill doesn't want to kill, but he has to. He is occasionally visited by his Aunt Cordelia, who appears and disappears mysteriously. Kris Kristofferson does a great job. Quebec Bill is such a nice person, even though he is tough and willing to kill when necessary. He cares about his son. He loves nature, and there is plenty of nice scenery. And he is a man of faith. He believes Jesus approves of whatever he does.Charlie McDermott is best known as irresponsible and rebellious Axl on "The Middle", but he is a completely different character here. He isn't the brightest student, but he responsible and moral and certainly not rebellious. And yet he would like some excitement in his life.While not a comedy, this movie does provide some laughs. William Sanderson is probably best known as Larry, the brother of the two Darryls, and here he is mostly comic relief, though he takes his faith more seriously than Quebec Bill. Luis Guzman as what sounds to me like Brother Hilarious lives up to that name, though he is only in a couple of scenes. Genevieve Bujold does an excellent job as Aunt Cordelia, who is a voice of reason and provides Wild Bill plenty of guidance and real Christian morals.If you like steam trains, this movie has one, and an engineer who is quite a character.It's worth seeing if you like stories about macho men in the woods.

"Disappearances" is a film I'll show to as many friends as possible, and hopefully have many deeply stimulating conversations with others who are stirred and haunted – in a good way – by its magic and beauty. This has "cult classic of the best kind" written all over it, in the sense that it has everything you'd want from a ripping good yarn of a film, would appeal to someone who's favorite film was, say, "Raiders of the Lost Arc" or "Rio Bravo", but plays by its own rules and those *aren't* the rules that get a film a mega-promotional package. And that's exactly why fans looking for something new will love it, and why word of mouth on it'll spread. Writer-Director Jay Craven, working on a small budget, performs the tricky balancing act of capturing the excitement and suspense of the often over-the-top material, while maintaining a humble, understated, down-to-earth tone. Here we have bootleggers, drunken monks, drunken bootlegging monks, car and boat and train chases, a spectral witch who disappears and reappears in the damnedest times and places to offer wisdom, an undead whiskey-running pirate straight out of New England folklore with a gang of henchmen – seriously, what's not to like? - … and as an enthusiast and former resident of Vermont, if I told you how much of this seems plausible, you wouldn't believe me. The film captured everything best in the rugged, feisty, often adventuresome spirit of the state of Vermont, depicting an outlaw culture that thrived on the fringes of a fading northern frontier, personified in Quebec Bill, a farmer in the Depression who must revert to his old whiskey running practices to save the farm after his barn is struck by lightning and burns down. This guy's my new movie-character hero. His dynamic with friends/partners-in-crime Rat Kinneson (William Sanderson) and Henry Coville (Gary Farmer), of how buddies together in an outrageous, sometimes dangerous situation, each surviving and making sense of things in his own way while putting up with each other - to some degree surviving each other - is spot-on. Particularly that whole scene in the tavern, and the delivery of the line "Because I couldn't stand myself if I wasn't there to help you out of whatever you're about to get into." Kris Kristofferson is amazing as Quebec Bill, deepening my already considerable respect for someone who was already one of my favorite musical artists, as are Sanderson and Farmer in their respective roles. Years back, I had a chance to read the screenplay to this film before it was produced. As a fan of the TV show "Deadwood," when I found out Sanderson was playing Rat, I thought, "Damn, that's perfect!" And it's interesting to find Farmer in both this and "Dead Man", as I found that film tonally and thematically similar, in its dreamlike quality and embrace of fantastical, metaphorical imagery and mystery, things that aren't always explained, yet actively invite the audience to participate with their own imagination and come to their own conclusions. "Disappearances" is, however, far less brutal, as well as warmer and more inviting to like and identify with its characters. Quebec Bill and crew are guys I'd like to hang out with. By the end of the film, I wished I could stay in their world with them longer. It left me longing for the things in the world that have *disappeared* -- SPOILIER WARNING -- as symbolized by Bill and Cordelia literally doing so – END SPOILERS -- under the weight of "progress," even though only the ghosts of many such things have been around to know in my own lifetime. In that sense, I related to Wild Bill, and wanted to see where life takes him from there.Also a delightful surprise is the film's handling of its demonic villain Carcajou, particularly Lothaire Bluteau in the role. In the novel and script, he was a far less developed, more hulking ogre-like monster, though clearly with a cunning brain. Here, he becomes something far more ambiguous and complex. I don't think I've seen this actor in anything else, though he should be seen more. Any time the character's on screen, you can't take your eyes off him. Moments like when he comes snarling onto the train waving that knife around were genuinely terrifying, yet there were other times when I felt a strange sympathy for him. I really wanted to see more of that character and learn more about him, though truthfully such a character is generally most effective when actually seen only in small doses, someone who becomes an ominous off-screen ever-presence, sort of like Dracula in Bram Stoker's original novel. And like Stoker's Dracula, Carcajou is in many ways a personification of unresolved things within the good guys, things they're not comfortable with, can't yet face within themselves, things they're running from, manifested as a physical boogie-man onto whom those fears become projected... someone from whom they must literally run. Such metaphoric exploration is what's always truly wonderful about the best fantasy in film and literature, light and dark. And "Disappearances" certainly ranks with the best!

Set in Vermont during the Prohabition, Quebec Bill(Kris Kristofferson)is desperate for cash after a freak lightning strike burns his barn full of hay. Despite the warnings from his mystical sister, Cordelia(Genevieve Bujold), he decides to go back to his old ways and hatches a plan to steal whiskey from a Canadian whiskey pirate. Quebec Bill and his 15-year old son Wild Bill(Charlie McDermott)along with farm hand Rat(William Sanderson)and Henry Coville(Gary Farmer), the senior Bill's brother-in-law, set out on a treacherous journey across the Vermont/Canadian border to steal twenty cases of whiskey. The trip proves to be unforgettable and a bit haunting. The cinematography is beautiful and the acting is very commendable. Also in the cast: Heather Rae, Luis Guzman and Lothaire Bluteau.

This well-meant film falls just a bit short, and unfortunately in too many areas.The scenery is gorgeous, with vistas of north-central Vermont providing the setting for this mid-century tale. Quebec Bill endeavors to go back to his whiskey-running past in order to save his farm.Going back and forth between scenes of magical realism and straight-forward action, this film rarely hits its stride.Kris Kristofferson as Quebec Bill seems pretty stilted, or else it's his lines; or else his cross of Yankee and Quebecois accents. Anyway, he just comes off as a low-key blow-hard. His dialogs with Gary Farmer's Coville character do sparkle, though. William Sanderson's Rat Kinneson is solid. Charlie McDermott shows some real potential as young Wild Bill; but his part's not large enough to carry a scene and he never steals one. Luis Guzman shows up on Lake Memphramagog (with a fine stand-in performance by Lake Willoughby) as a monk with a boys'n'the hood accent: who knows? And then there's Bujold's Cordelia: an oracle like her namesake, she channels Yoda as she intones lines like "You will marry a Quebec woman!"?!? Just too weird and nowhere near enigmatic enough.The end gets really choppy. Again a bad mix of magical realism and the concrete. And Yoda never provides an answer we can understand.