
Peter Dunning is the proud proprietor of Mile Hill Farm, which sits on 187 acres in Vermont. The land's 38 harvests have seen the arrivals and departures of three wives and four children, leaving Peter with only animals and memories. The arrival of a film crew causes him to confront his history and his legacy, passing along hard-won agricultural wisdom even as he doubts the meaning of the work he is fated to perform until death. Haunted by alcoholism and regret, Peter veers b... (Full plot summary below)
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Peter Dunning is the proud proprietor of Mile Hill Farm, which sits on 187 acres in Vermont. The land's 38 harvests have seen the arrivals and departures of three wives and four children, leaving Peter with only animals and memories. The arrival of a film crew causes him to confront his history and his legacy, passing along hard-won agricultural wisdom even as he doubts the meaning of the work he is fated to perform until death. Haunted by alcoholism and regret, Peter veers between elation and despair, often suggesting to the filmmakers his own suicide as a narrative device. He is a tragedian on a stage it has taken him most of his life to build, and which now threatens to collapse from under him. At once a postcard from paradise and a cautionary tale for our times, Peter and The Farm sifts through the potential energy of a human life, that which is used and that which is squandered.
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| Shockya.comHarvey S. KartenThe philosophic pronouncements of a charismatic farmer. |
| The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyTransfixing in its workplace detail and haunting in its harsh commentary on a solitary existence. |
| The PlaylistNoel MurrayStone and his crew get the audience hooked on the mystery of this charismatic crank, and then take their time before they answer some of the bigger questions. |
| VarietyScott TobiasWith this rueful, cantankerous yet hugely charismatic figure at its center, Tony Stone’s beautiful documentary reveals the twin burdens of working the farm alone while beating back an encroaching inner darkness. |
| rec.arts.movies.reviewsLouis ProyectMore like Charles Bukowski than Henry David Thoreau, the eponymous farmer featured in this brilliant film is a reminder that documentaries are often far better than narrative films in character development. |
| Movie NationRoger MooreThe vast majority of us are so far removed from any common farming past that we idealize it and the people who live that lifestyle. Peter and the Farm is a sober reminder of how hard and callous that life is, and will come as a shock to anybody with romantic dreams of “chucking it all” to live off the land. |
| Slant MagazineChristopher GrayPeter and the Farm is a warts-and-all portrait that asserts its subject's sense of purpose even as it seems to slip out of his grasp. |
| GuardianNigel M. SmithDunning recounts spellbinding tales that led to the gradual downfall of his expansive Mile Hill Farm, and the destruction of his two marriages. |
| IndiewireDavid EhrlichThis intimate, unvarnished, and occasionally transcendent micro-portrait may seldom leave Dunning’s property, but it takes stock of the whole world. |
| RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyA very unusual and rare kind of movie: one that is good in spite of itself. Which isn’t to say that the movie’s director and co-producer Tony Stone doesn’t make some provocative, interesting choices. |