For a movie all about figuring out what a price point is, that being the place at which a person will sell out his or her values, “Promised Land” sells its own self short. It happens at the end, which I will not give away, but figuratively speaking it feels like director Gus Van Sant (“Milk,” “Good Will Hunting”) has been bought off. No wonder the natural gas industry is up in arms. Up until then, “Promised Land,” the only dramatic motion picture ever made about “fracking” — or hydraulic fracturing, the practice of extracting natural gas from shale deposits by pumping water and chemicals into the rock to break the gas free — maintains a surprisingly balanced, relatively non-polemic tone. (Documentary filmmaker Josh Fox made the anti-fracking “Gasland” in 2010, presumably an inspiration for this movie.) Matt Damon, with whom Van Sant worked on “Good Will,” plays Steve Butler, a ladder-climbing employee of a natural gas company, who, along with his partner Sue Thomason (Frances McDormand), barges into rural towns to get the populace to sign over their land for fracking. Steve’s approachable demeanor and Iowa upbringing make him a boy wonder at the job and provide a counterweight to Sue’s more hard-bitten urban attitude. But somewhere in small-town America (I was never quite sure where) he runs into resistance in the form of an old horse farmer, Frank Yates (Hal Holbrook), who questions the environmental safety of the practice. Soon the town has a carpet-bagging environmental activist, Dustin Noble (John Krasinski), putting up a stiff competition with Steve for the town’s trust and a looming vote on fracking. They also become, mildly, rivals for the affection of a local schoolteacher, Alice (Rosemarie DeWitt). Damon and Krasinski wrote the screenplay, based on a book by Dave Eggers (2009’s “Away We Go,” which starred Krasinski), and they do a good job handling the blend of human drama and romance, leavened with occasional humor. Indeed, people smile a whole lot in “Promised Land,” considering the seriousness of the subject it tackles — lovely smiles on the faces of DeWitt, Damon, and Krasinski, among others. Connecticut native Titus Welliver doesn’t smile as much, but he may be the freshest thing in the movie, playing the owner of a “guns, gas, and grocery store” who befriends Sue. The entire cast is uniformly excellent, however. Damon has played some version of a saintly hero in a few too many movies lately (such as the saccharine “We Bought a Zoo”) but settles more easily into his role as Steve. McDormand can do no wrong, giving an underwritten role here the illusion of three-dimensional complexity. And the suddenly-busy Holbrook, last seen in “Lincoln” and who turns 88 next month, commands the frame with his craggy face and distinctive voice. “Promised Land” is a good, if lightweight, film sandwiched between a draggy opening and a questionable conclusion. (The two turn out to be related.) What you make of that ending may depend in part on your political beliefs and opinion about the fracking controversy. It’s worth seeing it to decide for yourself. “Promised Land” is rated R for language. It is playing at the Cinerom in Torrington and elsewhere.
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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