[7] Nicolas Cage stars in his most interesting movie in many years. He plays an ex-con in an impoverished Southern community who becomes an unlikely role model for a 15-year old boy (Mud‘s Tye Sheridan) who is dealing with an increasingly abusive, alcoholic father (Gary Poulter). Cage and Sheridan are top-notch, and Garry Hawkins’ screenplay, based on Larry Brown’s novel, never stoops to sentimentality. Director David …