Whether or not he has always gotten the most Oscar nominations or appeared in films that raked in the highest box office, Oscar-winner Robert Duvall has regularly been acting in films on the big and small screen for almost fifty years, making already great films masterpieces and making lesser films bearable. Still, his career has been on an upswing of sorts in recent years. After winning an Emmy for “Broken Trail” in 2007, last year Duvall made appearances in “Crazy Heart” (which he also produced) and “The Road”. Although both performances were low on screen time, they helped prove why Duvall is such a powerful character actor, as his performances (especially in “The Road”) affected the film and stayed with the audience long after his screen time had ended. With “Get Low”, Duvall carries a film in a way that he hasn’t since “The Apostle” in 1997, and just as he earned a Best Actor nomination for his performance in that film, he deserves another for his brilliant work here. In “Get Low” Duvall plays Felix Bush, a man who lives in the backwoods of the Deep South during the Great Depression. Sensing his impending death, Bush attempts to gather the entire town for a “living funeral” in an attempt to seek redemption and clear his name, finally ending the rumors that have plagued him for forty years. In addition Bush also seeks personal redemption with the widow Maddie Darrow (Oscar-winner Sissy Spacek) and the preacher Charlie Jackson (Bill Cobbs). To make the funeral happen, Bush enlists the help of funeral home owner Frank Quinn (Oscar-nominee Bill Murray) and his apprentice Buddy Robinson (Lucas Black). Duvall’s performance is exceptional because for the time he is on-screen, he doesn’t so much act the character as he becomes the character. It’s reminiscent of Jack Nicholson in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” because Duvall still looks like himself, yet is so good it’s easy to forget you’re watching him instead of Felix Bush. Duvall also excels by giving a performance that’s not made up of Oscar-baity moments, but by giving a performance where he manages to fully embody the character in every scene, and in addition to having the perfect head-to-toe mannerisms, he delivers the dialogue so richly that he sounds like a character from a book written by Mark Twain. Duvall also lives the themes of self-guilt and the quest for redemption so deeply in the film that at times a look or a word from him is enough to move the audience to tears. Still, the acting here is not all about Duvall. Murray gives his best performance since “Broken Flowers” in 2005. Most of what makes Murray’s performance great is his comedic timing, bringing his character’s dialogue to life in a way that makes him the comic relief to the very dramatic themes in the film. Yet some of the most powerful scenes in the film come as when Murray’s Frank Quinn struggles to balance his desire to make money off of Bush’s spectacle with the humanity of what the living funeral is meant to achieve. Spacek does her best work since her Oscar-nominated role in “In the Bedroom” as she struggles to reconcile the feelings she has for Bush and her anger towards him. Much like Duvall her work errs on the subtle side, yet she brings a humanity to the role and the themes in the script that make the film all the more touching and engaging. Fans of the Oscar-winning film “Sling Blade” will enjoy seeing Black all grown-up and taking on such a complex and mature role. Much like in “Sling Blade”, he plays the moral heart of the film, trying to be the Good Angel of sorts on Quinn’s shoulder as they navigate the waters where humanity and commerce meet. Fans of the Oscar-winning film “Crazy Heart” will also enjoy seeing that film’s writer/director Scott Cooper appear in a small role here, where he does fine acting in a couple scenes. Although “Crazy Heart” left audiences eager for more work from Cooper as a writer/director, his role here suggests that he could also have a bright future as a character actor. Director Aaron Schneider won an Oscar in 2004 for his Live Action Short Film “Two Soldiers” based on William Faulkner’s short story, and here he makes his feature debut. For the most part, he comes into the feature world triumphantly, as he stages many of the touching moments in “Get Low” in a way that capitalizes on the brilliant writing and great performances for maximum emotional impact. For better or worse, the script feels episodic in nature, almost like a collection of very powerful short scenes that could almost be mini-films in that of themselves. Most of it works, except on and off during the second act when Schneider looses the forest despite the trees and the pace of the film drags and veers off course a little. Still, his voice is incredibly strong as a filmmaker, and while this may not be the strongest first feature ever made, it is certainly far greater than the first features of Martin Scorsese or Steven Spielberg, and “Get Low” established Schneider as a filmmaker to watch, as his forthcoming films could easily be as good as that of those Oscar-winning directors. Two of the biggest stars of the production are Cinematographer Danny Boyd and Production Designer Geoffrey Kirkland. Their work in the film is so strong, that it’s one of only two films in memory (the other one being “Gangs of New York”) where the audience can actually smell the surroundings. This isn’t even a result of anything being on screen that would smell particularly strong, but Boyd and Kirkland make the woods, the town, and the buildings look so rich, vivid, and alive, that one could easily feel completely immersed in being there. Another aspect to the success of the film is the perfect score written by Jan A.P. Kaczmarek (Oscar-winner for “Finding Neverland”) and Jerry Douglas who wrote additional music and who’s world-class Dobro playing is featured throughout the film. Their work is also richly and deeply felt throughout the film, and creates both a feel and a sound that takes you for the duration of the film out of your world and into the Depression-era South. While blockbuster films attempt to create immersive film-going experiences with massive 3-D effects budgets, Schneider and company created the same experience without the gimmicks, simply employing amazing writing and acting, and wizards in their various artistic and technical fields bringing this story to life. While “Get Low” may not be a flawless film, it’s a more mentally and emotionally rewarding film-going experience than any blockbuster this year, and one that audiences will hopefully embrace and critics will remember at year’s end. “Get Low” opens July 30 in NY and LA with a national roll out to follow.