Rating: 
Summary: Two brothers and the summer a hidden past is revealed
Review: Based on my memory of reviews when this film was first released, I expected a kind of comedy-drama-romance, which it is not. It can best be described as a family melodrama, set on a small farm in Nebraska (actually shot in the rural community of Ft. Calhoun, near Omaha). The elements are somewhat familiar: an older man raising two sons, of somewhat different temperaments, all haunted by the memory of a mother who had aspirations beyond the narrow confines of the farm (she names a horse Jackie, after Jackie Kennedy, because she "liked famous people"). During a summer, as the boys have grown into young men, the truth of their mother's past begins to make itself known, and all are deeply affected.The story has a leisurely pace as it unfolds, and for a time it seems to be about the growing attraction between womanizer Tully and Ella, a college-educated friend of his younger brother. But this becomes a thread in the larger story of a family's secrets and loyalties surfacing after years of silence and half-truths. For its length, it's a small film, and its strength is not in big effects, sex and nudity, or heavy plotting. Instead there are well-acted scenes between people in muted conflict who struggle with emotions and the difficulty of trusting others with the truth about themselves. This will not be everyone's idea of entertainment, but as indie movies go, I found that it rewarded my patience. The cinematography captures the deep greens of mid-summer, and scenes are often shot in early morning or late afternoon, so the golden, glancing sunlight lights characters with a rich glow and casts cool shadows. Night scenes are played against a textured fabric of insect sounds. Always the camera captures the isolation and solitude of country living. Perhaps the only real ring of inaccuracy in the film is the fact that so little of the dawn-to-dusk work of actual farming is reflected in the lives of the characters. These boys have an awful lot of time on their hands; the farm seems to take care of itself. The film is based on a story by writer Tom McNeal, whose novel "Goodnight, Nebraska" has similar characters (a young couple), a rural small town setting, and touches on similar themes. For fans of the film, I recommend McNeal's book.
Rating: 
Summary: Exceptional movie.
Review: Beautiful, evocative, slow (in a good way), and ever so memorable video. It's about a Midwestern farm family of a dour old man and his two sons. A tragic even in their past has left each of them wounded in different ways. When the bank sends an unexpected foreclosure notice, a mystery comes to light that irrevocably changes them and their relationships to each other and their community. Funny, sad, thoughtful...and wonderful.
Rating:
Summary: This one will stay with me awhile
Review: Beautiful, evocative, slow (in a good way), and ever so memorable video. It's about a Midwestern farm family of a dour old man and his two sons. A tragic even in their past has left each of them wounded in different ways. When the bank sends an unexpected foreclosure notice, a mystery comes to light that irrevocably changes them and their relationships to each other and their community. Funny, sad, thoughtful...and wonderful.
Rating:
Summary: Exceptional movie.
Review: great film. acting is understated, natural and wonderful. story is elegant, tragic, uplifting.
Rating:
Summary: Realistic, Family Drama
Review: Hilary Birmingham makes a stirring directorial debut in this realistic, family drama, which I rank, next to Billy Elliot and In the Bedroom, as among the best. The characters are both believable and three-dimensional as they try to work through their tremendous character flaws to find what they are each searching for; and down to the last line Birmingham displays an amazing understanding of human nature. It won the Audience Award for Best Director and Critics Award at the 2000 Los Angeles Film Festival, Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at the 2000 Newport International Film Festival, and Audience Award for Best Feature at the 2000 Gen Art Film Festival. Like the films I compared it to, Tully takes a few hours to sink in before you realize how deeply moving it is, but this long overdue release belongs in every great film library.
Rating:
Summary: Exceptional and Touching
Review: I almost missed this film until my friend told me it was his favorite movie of that year. I ran out to see it and it is a gem! Art-film from beginning to end, this soft-spoken story comes alive and envelopes you in the realities of small town life. There are no "villians" or "Heroes" and the story has nowhere to go other than to chronical the lives of these people for a short time. It is so easy to care for these people.
Afterwards, I took another friend to go see it as an "emergency movie" to a tiny little theater in Berkley (the only place that was still showing it, 48 miles away). After the film he stood up and said "That was pure quality." I agree.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous character development
Review: It's a slow movie... but the character development is excellent! Tully is the story of two brothers, their father, and life on the farm. You'll find yourself caring about these characters. I really appreciated them because they don't complain about their lives on the farm and aren't bitter about their existence. Thoughtful and sometimes sad, Tully is definitely worth watching.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous character development
Review: It's a slow movie... but the character development is excellent! Tully is the story of two brothers, their father, and life on the farm. You'll find yourself caring about these characters. I really appreciated them because they don't complain about their lives on the farm and aren't bitter about their existence. Thoughtful and sometimes sad, Tully is definitely worth watching.
Rating: 
Summary: Sure didn't work for me...
Review: My wife brought this home from the video store on a whim after hearing on TV that Roger Ebert liked it. To each of us, however, this was boring and slow and slow and boring. An arty film in which every single camera shot or scene seems to last too long. One of the sons has sex twice with a trampy but pretty girl, and twice with a nice but less attractive partner. No steamy love on screen, however. We join them only when the action is over, and most clothes are back on. This is the kind of script that could have benefitted from nudity and sexual content. It is a downer, and for some movie fans, any film that's not a downer isn't really "art." If you are like that, perhaps you will like this. I think the director may have some talent but needs a better sense of pace and action.
Rating:
Summary: Better than the Title
Review: Sometimes movie titles (Tully) are weaker than the movies. This story line of mid-western farm people from a vague time period, I'm guessing the late 1980's or mid-90's, is well developed. We care about young stud Tully,his dorky brother, and weather beaten dad. The farm is in danger from a mysterious debt and Tully is gradually falling for the freckled good-girl neighbor back from vet school. These are people that work. How many movies are about real people that work? No detectives or super-models here, no; these are rural folks that honky-tonk on a Saturday night and swim in the local water hole with their girlfriends, or make love down a lonely road on top of the hood of a 82 Cadillac. I cared about the characters.
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