I know these streamers don’t think about patterns, but over the last couple of years, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed some June films dropping on Apple Plus. This was the window for Cha Cha Real Smooth, and also for Fancy Dance. If you haven’t seen either of those, I highly recommend. Echo Valley seems more in tune to the bumps along the way Apple struggled with last year, putting out the failed Oscar bait Blitz, the critically derided Argylle, and the forgettable The Instigators. they have a lot riding on their Brad Pitt/Joseph Kosinski collaboration F1, so echo Valley is more of an appetizer for a larger meal.As critics, or just the film online community as a whole, often throw the term “slow burn’ around whenever a film has pacing issues. It is a signal that the audience might need to be patient, and in an age where people consume content in shorter and shorter bits, patience is more of a virtue than ever before. Echo Valley is a slow burn, not because it is astoundingly boring, or ungodly long, but because the plot truly takes a while to unfurl. Julianne Moore plays a woman who lives out on some acreage with her horses, and some boarded horses, and lives a rather simple life. she’s mourning the loss of her partner from a few months ago, and her daughter is an addict slowly bleeding her finances dry.This is a story where Mom will do anything for their kid, to a point where the kid might exploit that.

The daughter (Sydney Sweeney) seems clean, but is trying to escape her ex, who follows her to her mother’s. ultimately, she does go with him, but later comes back covered in blood with a story to tell. Will Mom help her cover up her daughter’s “accident”, or is there something deeper to this story? And since drugs are in play, there is a dealer lurking (Domnhall Gleason) still looking to get paid.

the movie is patient. that is what makes it a slow burn, because it isn’t a film made for people without attention spans, but an audience looking for a challenge. the reason I thought the film wasn’t perfect, is that Sweeney’s character never works for me. for a character who was born from the drug induced Euphoria, she never really plays the addict convincingly enough. She’s been better in other things. I was more impressed by Gleason, who is stepping outside his normal scope of work, and playing a scoundrel who is a bit of a challenge for Moore.

the reason to watch, is to see how it all plays out in the end. Moore is such a consistent actress, I’d like to believe she’s earned our patience. echo Valley isn’t a film classic by any means, but in terms of streaming exclusives, we could do a lot worse. The audio description, narrated by Darren Polish, treats it less like a thriller, and is less interested in atmosphere, and is more detail oriented, treating it like a murder mystery so the payoff at the end makes sense.

Everyone here has done something better before, but this is also better than several of Apple’s previous exclusives.

Fresh: Final Grade: 7.0/10