Remarkably laissez-faire with its funding, Standard Oil Company commissioned Flaherty to positively portray oil exploration in the Louisiana bayou. With echoes of Elephant Boy, Flaherty places an adventurous, superstitious Cajun youth named Alexander Napoleon Ulysses Latour at the fulcrum of two equally powerful forces: nature and industry. The towering derricks and their dangerous, noisy inner workings have invaded the young explorer’s idyllic, animal-populated world, and Flaherty accords both realms thoughtful consideration. Alexander’s rural family and the oil workers—who good-naturedly attempt to understand one another—are unpolished non-actors mostly playing themselves. They enter into that peculiar dimension of heartfelt reenactment that feels as innocent and honest as the antics of young Alexander and his pet raccoon. – Brittany Gravely