Zack Kozlow

The power of poetry—to excavate the hurts we hide, the joy we can’t express—finds voice in Dead Deer High, a thoughtful and intense yet tender drama about friends dealing with an all-too-common tragedy. No one knows how to navigate the aftermath of a tragic killing of a high school poet. And while the filmmakers give poetry space and time to breathe in medium-wide shots and long takes, they also nurture their characters and the audience. A school choir provides a melodic motif about time, but as quick cuts of the campus and a quiet moment in the forest show, sometimes there are no words.