widescreen

Its widescreen picture of the phenomenon is braided with details of people like Ida Mae Brandon Gladney, a Mississippi sharecropper who headed to Chicago to escape violent racism at home, only to discover a complicated network of bigotry and industry in the Midwest.

Her rhythms evoke both the energy and quiet hum of rural life, with cinematographer Elio Balézeaux’s attractive widescreen framing capturing a range between tactile human intimacy and beautiful wide landscapes.

But Courage is as interested in character as she is in her widescreen setting.

Lund directs Greg Tango’s cinematography toward widescreen compositions and genteel tracking shots of autumnal poetry, allowing every weary soul a ruminative closeup to go with their sharply detailed micro-dramas about the finer points of game play, someone’s annoying traits or life’s general indignities.

“When did everything turn into a grift?” asks a young man named Tobey midway through Brian Castleberry’s “The Californians,” an ambitious, widescreen novel about the ugliness that often ensues when art and commerce collide.