Sword of Trust

2019 Directed by Lynn Shelton

When Cynthia and Mary show up to collect Cynthia's inheritance from her deceased grandfather, the only item she's received is an antique sword that he believed to be proof that the South won the Civil War.

Marc Maron Jon Bass Michaela Watkins Jillian Bell Toby Huss Dan Bakkedahl Lynn Shelton Timothy Paul Whitmer Thomas Al Elliott Tilcia Furman Benjamin Keepers Robert Longstreet Elise Mayfield T'Darius Murphy Chris Steele Elisha Williams John Winscher

88 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by demi adejuyigbe ★★★★ 4

God, I loved this. Everybody's so perfectly cast, the story is so simple but screwy and enticing with plenty of little turns peppered into its short runtime, and I laughed out loud several times, including one big guffaw at a great Chickenfoot joke I did not see coming. Outstanding. Was delighted to see my friends Jon and Whit giving predictably great performances. :)
Watched this when I heard of the untimely passing of Lynn Shelton today. What a loss. I didn't "know" her and it feels self-serving to pretend that I did, or that we were even tangentially connected in any way, but she directed the episode of The Good Place that was right after mine, so I met her…
Review by matt lynch 3

I don't want to review this movie one way or the other because Ms. Shelton is a friend. But I will say that Toby Huss is in it playing a guy named Hog Jaws.
Review by Mike D'Angelo ★★★½ 2

67/100
A.V. Club review. Shelton’s best since Humpday, confirming Maron as a genuine actor who can be riotously funny one moment and deeply human the next, without contradiction. Happy to see her return to improv, which she still orchestrates superlatively.
Review by Allison M. 🌱 ★★★

A movie that delves into conspiracy theories and the value of family. I'm not sure why IMDB has this tagged as a drama as it's obvious that they're going for laughs and not serious about "flat-earth" and other theories like that.
Cynthia (Jillian Bell) and Mary (Michaela Watkins) play a couple who inherit a sword. There's a lot of improv. Some of it works, some of it doesn't, but the actors are pretty solid.
Vegan alert:
-A woman buys a cream pitcher to give milk to cats
-Reference to hot dogs
-A horse on a farm is subjected to something uncomfortable (implied)
Q&A with Mark Olsen (moderator), Lynn Shelton (director), Marc Maron (actor/composer), Whitmer Thomas (actor), Timothy Paul (actor)
Jon Bass (actor), Jason Oldak (cinematographer) and Tyler Cook (editor)
Review by Jaime Rebanal ★★★★

There's not a whole lot going on here, but Lynn Shelton keeps every moment of it entertaining. Much like all her mumblecore efforts, the dialogue is primarily improvised and even as the plot starts to fumble around the cast still keeps Sword of Trust going.
I think we also just need Marc Maron in more things, too - because he steals every moment where he's onscreen.
RIP Lynn Shelton.
52 Films by Women: #25
Review by hamfruitcake ★★★★ 2

Marc Maron failing to comprehend contemporary things like WhatsApp or Escape Rooms and being all around curmudgeonly is always entertaining. Plus he can nail emotional world weariness so convincingly.
An engaging mix of characters on a strange journey. I could watch them all day.
Review by Dave Horwitz ★★★½

Marc Maron was pretty open with his desire to be an actor in the early days of his podcast. I remember thinking join the club pal! Then his IFC show came out and I remember thinking sheesh I don’t know buddy, if you can’t convincingly play yourself...
And then GLOW dropped and he was quite good and then he’s just fucking fantastic in this. He has range! He holds his own with everyone in this very good cast. What a comeback story. The acting gates have truly been unlocked.
PS: my friend Tyler edited this and he crushed it, I can’t imagine it was easy to wade through all that footage.
Also RIP Lynne Shelton. What a loss. What a great director who also nails her scene in this opposite Maron. How incredibly sad. You can tell they were already smitten with each other when they filmed.
Review by Herb Gallow ★★★★½

Rolls along calmly like a lazy day drifting on a delta current. A little turbulence here and there to liven up the ride, but nothing that's going to capsize you.
Lynn Shelton's put together something that's real and humane without falling into the contemptible recesses of fakery. There are few things as hateful as people learning valuable lessons. Lord preserve us from narratives with a treasure map goal of personal growth leading the viewer through Potemkin villages hammered together out of faded human emotion clapboard and papered over with cloying untruths. The people in Sword of Trust feel genuine and act in ways that people do, which is a necessary foundation if you're going to tell this kind of story.…
Review by Michael Sicinski ★★★½

[7]
I can't speak with any real authority about Lynn Shelton as a director. I wasn't as impressed with her breakout Humpday (2009) as some others were, although I thought the follow-up, Your Sister's Sister (2011) was a very sharp chamber drama that took a potentially crass, sensationalist premise and afforded it a significant degree of dignity while still allowing the essential foibles of the three protagonists to bubble up into dark comedic territory. After that Shelton pretty much fell off my radar.
But I liked Sword of Trust. More a thought experiment than a "movie" in the conventional sense, it sets up a premise that, while asinine, has several toes firmly planted in our equally asinine current reality. Given…
Review by Holly-Beth ★★★½

unrelated to the movie but i have no issue with the florence pugh/zach braff age gap.... and i say that because.... i do not want one fuckin' single person to @ me when i'm dating 100-year-old marc maron
Review by Emma 🔆 ★★★★ 3

1. I really liked this. It’s delightfully odd and sweet and we don’t get enough mumblecore movies.
2. Marc Maron is literally out there just being a curmudgeonly neurotic cat man and I love him so much please help me
Review by Joshua Dysart ★★★

A light effort wrapped around one incredible carpeted van ride sequence.
The front half really shows Maron’s ability to riff with others and everyone is spot on in the character department, but after some uninspired machinations (and the aforementioned van ride) we end up with a back pitch that’s pretty much just soft hijinks and convenient closure with very few laughs.
When the dust has settled, the only actor who really seems to have delivered the goods is Toby Huss as Hog Jaws.
Commendably, it's taking a shot at our modern moment, but it looks more fun to make than I had watching it. Good on ‘em for having a blast creating something together.

Recent reviews

Review by MGKK ★★★

RIP Lynn Shelton.
Review by Matt Walker ★★★★

This was a hard one.
Watching her come into the shop and have an incredibly intimate powerful scene with Marc Maron , conveying an entire history of pain that words couldn't , but through a pained look; an expression. Lynn Shelton was really a special person and it's heartbreaking to know this is her last.
Sword of Trust is a movie that was sold on its improv nature but this isn't a UCB sketch, its about letting funny people find the truth in every scene, letting a moment play out over time until someone says something really unexpected. This feels at times documentary-like with how sparse it is. It's a really wonderful comedy with everyone (ESPECIALLY TOBY HUSS THE GOAT) being amazing in it. The Marc Maron score as he riffs on guitar pairs perfectly with the comedy riffing on display in the film itself.
This is a good one. Don't miss it.
Hug your loved ones.
Review by babadook1995 ★★★★★

I've been reading a lot about white supremacist conspiracy theories so I needed this
Review by JBurrello ★★★½

An inherited sword that allegedly proves that the South won the Civil War is taken to a pawn shop and thus begins our journey into a modern analysis of the lies we believe and the confirmation biases we live with. Sword of Trust (2019) kind of surprised me with how clever it was and is a testament to how far you can get with a decent script and a good cast. Very funny, but also quite subtle and tender.
Review by bradylees ★★★★½

I really like this movie
Review by fchopin2 ★★★★

Lynn Shelton Festival #7
She was so good at setting up an ensemble and just letting them go at it. This film is up there with Hump Day for its brilliant comedic set pieces.
I’m so sad we won’t be getting more films from her, but so very grateful for the ones we have.
Review by Matt Buchholz ★★★★

I've been made to understand that people are looking for comedies that are soothing balms rather than laugh riots in these trying times, which drives me insane in the most boring way possible. But this impeccably cast post mumble-core hang-out comedy, a wonderful final outing for director Lynn Shelton, is the rare beast that does it all.
Review by Steven S. ★★★½

Marc Maron is always somehow bitter and jaded and grumpy, but also charming and affable in a very sincere way that I love/admire.
But aside from this, Toby Huss plays a redneck named Hog Jaws and if that's not a reason to watch a movie-- I don't know what is.
Review by Rizay ★★½

Unfocused and inconsistent, but has a few great moments. Unfortunately, those moments rarely involve the main plot, which is less than compelling.
Review by James

Very fun. I love Marc Maron.
Review by Clay Norris ★★★½

I’m not too into mumblecore movies, but Sword of Trust is worth a watch if you’re a Lynn Shelton and/or Marc Maron fan. This is definitely the best Shelton movie I’ve seen.
Review by mjamisonwsu ★★★★

Love the conspiracy theory inception