Finestkind

A powerhouse cast and crew anchor this gritty, unglamorous look at a fractious family of fishermen trolling increasingly threatening waters in this feature on Paramount+, coming soon to home video.

“Finestkind” is exactly the sort of hefty, middling-budget movie people complain Hollywood doesn’t make anymore. It’s a gritty, unglamorous drama with a powerhouse cast — Tommy Lee Jones, Ben Foster and Jenna Ortega among them — plus an Oscar-winning writer/director, Brian Helgeland (“L.A. Confidential,” “Mystic River,” “42”).

Except it’s not in any theaters, but only has been available on Paramount+. It will debut on digital platforms for rental March 26 and on DVD April 9.

It’s about a group of fishermen — a family, both extended and estranged — struggling to keep their way of living afloat around New Bedford, Mass. It’s the largest fishing port in the U.S., and hardscrabble folk from the area have been braving the North Atlantic seas for generations. Too often, they return without enough fish to sustain them… or don’t return at all.

Tom (Foster) is the captain of a trawler (“draggers” in the local parlance) with a solid crew and a reputation for finding the choice fishing spots. He doesn’t own his ship, the Harmony, but works it on behalf one of the multitudinous suits (Charlie Thurston) who got rich from fishing without ever getting any stink on him.

He’s deeply out of sorts with his dad, Ray (Jones), a local legend whose boat lends the title of the movie. It’s also become a popular local epithet, used both as praise and condemnation, or pretty much anything depending on how you say it.

Early on Tom is approached by his much younger half-brother, Charlie (Toby Wallace), freshly graduated from college. He’s set to go to Boston University Law in the fall but wants to spend the summer working as a deckhand so he can reconnect with his big brother. There’s certainly a layer of privilege there, too, a preppy kid from the rich side of town looking for some blue-collar stories to tell his fellow blue-bloods, but Charlie earnestly looks up to Tom.

“I always knew where I stood with you: ‘Get lost, or get over here,’” he says.

Tom is stubborn, a no-man-is-my-master type, something he inherited from Ray. Unfortunately, his judgment is often outweighed by his mule head, and bad tidings have a way of showing up on his dock.

Early on a mishap at sea results in Tom and his crew losing their ride. Ray insists on Tom taking over the Finestkind, at least for a little while, so he can attend to some business in Boston (easily guessed at). Tom refuses at first, not wanting to seem beholden to his old man, but then decides to show him up by bringing in the biggest haul of scallops the ship has ever recorded.

This leads to some line-crossing and rule-shirking, which leads to even more threatening waters, and then into a straight-up “Breaking Bad” tempest. It seems like this family’s proverbial ship is headed to the briny deep.

Ortega plays Mabel, a pushy girl from the wrong side of the tracks who sets her sights on Charlie. It’s an earthy, confident turn by Ortega, playing a smart young woman playing the cards she’s been dealt the best way possible rather than crying about the bad hand she got. Her family is into criminal enterprises, but Mabel refuses to ever be anything less than proud.

Tom’s crew is fleshed out nicely with some distinct, colorful characters who never feel like background players. Costa (Ismael Cruz Córdova) is a budding family man and the one guy who can talk Tom down from his high perch. Nunes (Scotty Tovar) is a little simple-minded but sweet, and you can never wholly discount a man who tools around in a ‘72 Olds Cutlass. Skeemo (Aaron Stanford) takes Charlie under his wing and gives him shit, but also is a good teacher despite having his own demons.

Lolita Davidovich plays Tom and Charlie’s mom — “I had you too early and you too late” — who loves them both fiercely, and still harbors a soft spot for Ray. Tim Daly is Charlie’s father, a corporate attorney who gets to play the priggish heavy, unable to understand why his kid is out shucking scallops when he could be clerking in an air-conditioned high-rise.

Helgeland and cinematographer Crille Forsberg shoot the seaborne scenes beautifully but not sentimentally, depicting it as a harsh sphere where man, fish, whales and more coexist, if not always peacefully. Rather than just showing the payoff where the catch plops onto the deck, the filmmakers walk us through the mechanics of fishing step-by-step, a dance of poetry and brutal efficiency, and we start to understand why Charlie is hooked.

Back on land, the fishermen are less agile, swilling booze at a bar called Rasputin’s, bragging and cracking on each other. They’re salty roughnecks, good guys so long as you don’t cross their unspoken code of honor.

Late in the going we meet Weeks, a local crime lord whose doings they stumble into. Played by Clayne Crawford, he’s somehow very casual and charismatic, but can turn in an instant into an utterly chilling figure. Every one of Crawford’s scenes is pure raw-nerve electricity; I was reminded of a young Mickey Rourke.

Ben Foster is also terrific, but then he’s always terrific — my pick for best film actor working today who’s never received an Oscar nomination. (The oversight for “Hell or High Water” still stings.) He plays Tom as an ornery fellow who’s just perceptive and self-aware enough to maybe, maybe, not turn out like Ray.

There’s not enough Tommy Lee Jones to suit my taste, really more of a supporting character even though headlining. Despite the crackle of the Weeks scenes, part of me wishes the film had stayed out of the crime-and-punishment stuff and just focused on the complicated, calcified dynamic between the two brothers and Ray, with Charlie’s parents as a secondary layer of conflict.

There’s enough story meat on those bones to make for a tasty meal all on its own.

Editor’s note: “Finestkind” was originally released on Paramount+ in September.