I can’t find my notes at the moment, but one of the films I caught last week was Joey Lauren Adams’ writing and directorial debut, Come Early Morning, with Ashley Judd. The full review will post next week, timed to coincide with its November 10 opening from Roadside Attractions, but it’s not necessarily a bad little film, rooted in some of Adams’ own experiences and infused with a realistic sense of atmosphere and place.

Very few in Hollywood today do the whole rural-woman-making-poor-decisions thing as well as Judd, and the movie deepens as it moves along. Come Early Morning is one of those get-it-off-your-chest-type directorial debuts, kind of like Gary Oldman’s Nil By Mouth, except of course completely not. If it expands one’s reading of Adams as a person and actress, though, it’s unlikely to necessarily lead to much outside, mainstream directing work.