Max Walker Silverman Paints a Portrait of Loss and Hope in Rebuilding 

Sundance Film Review: Rebuilding 
Director: Max Walker-Silverman
Cinema Inutile, Cinereach, Cow Hip Films
Premiere: 01.26

Writer-director Max Walker-Silverman returns to Sundance, where he dazzled with the lyrical A Love Song in 2022, and his sophomore effort is both emotional and eerily timely. While Rebuilding was chosen as an official festival selection long before the California wildfires turned the Pacific Palisades and Altadena to cinders, the connection is hard to shake.

After a devastating wildfire destroys his family’s Colorado ranch, Dusty (Josh O’Connor, Challengers) is left with nothing but a FEMA trailer and an uncertain future. Forced to take a temporary construction job, he struggles to regain his footing while grappling with the loss of his land, legacy and sense of purpose. His young daughter, Callie Rose (Lily LaTorre, Run Rabbit Run), visits from town, where she lives with her mother Ruby (Meghann Fahy, The White Lotus) and grandmother Bess (Amy Madigan, Field of Dreams). Though initially withdrawn, Dusty forms a bond with fellow survivor Mali (Kali Reis, Catch the Fair One, True Detective: Night Country), a widowed mother who fosters a sense of community among the displaced. The loss of everything he had taken for granted also leads Dusty to work to reconnect with his daughter, spending more time with her and prioritizing solidifying the bond between them. As the pieces of an old life are scattered to the wind, the only options are to be scattered with them or to build anew.

Rebuilding feels heavily influenced by the work of John Steinbeck, and it’s a moving look at poverty, loss and resilience. It’s considerably slower in its pacing than A Love Song, as Dusty goes through the whole film with the numb, dazed sense of shock that comes after an unimaginable tragedy and, like its protagonist, at times the film seems to be unsure where where to go or why to go there. As it progresses, though, it becomes more clear that this is an intentional choice.  While the blaze that destroyed Dusty’s ranch and his life was a swift and relentless, the story of picking up the pieces of a slow burn requires some patience, though it pays off handsomely. The quiet moments as Dusty reconnects with Ruby and her family are wonderful, and the overriding sense of empathy and kinship that pervades the film is quite effecting. Cinematographer Alfonso Herrera Salcedo paints with a refined touch, capturing both the cast and landscape with effortless precision. As the sun sets, deep purples and warm oranges streak across the sky, adding to the film’s ethereal beauty amid the desolation.

O’Connor’s melancholy and soft-spoken Dusty is the anthesis of everything we saw in Challengers, and it’s a stunning achievement in understated and internal acting, while also showcasing his considerable skill with accents and characters (as he began speaking during the Q & A session after the premiere, the quiet yet audible gasps of “He’s BRITISH?” that spread through the audience were quite amusing to hear). Madigan is simply sublime as Bess, the loving matriarch who is nearing the end, sturdy of spirit yet increasingly fragile of body.  LaTorre is adorable and utterly real as the young daughter, and Walker-Silverman seems to have a knack for getting great performances from children (Marty Grace Dennis as the young spokesperson for the cowboys in A Love Song is still my favorite part of a perfect film). O’Connor’s tender interactions rebuilding with LaTorre and her wise-beyond-her-years patience with this man who doesn’t know how to be a father are the film’s greatest strengths.

Rebuilding is another captivating visual poem from a unique artist who wears his heart and his soul on his sleeve, and whose unapologetically sensitive and sentimental voice makes him one of the most refreshing and vital emerging artists of our time. —Patrick Gibbs 

Read more of SLUG’s coverage of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.