The Broadcast

Orson Welles's famous War of the Worlds radio program serves as the backdrop for a melodrama about star-crossed lovers, class warfare, and racial tensions in the Depression-era Midwest. Twenty-year-old Gavin wants to propose to his young love interest, Kimberly, but needs her stern father's approval to do so. Meanwhile his father, Dawson, plays benefactor to starving farmer Jacob, and a black stranger drifts into town. These diverse characters are thrown together by Welles's broadcast, which scares them into taking refuge in a storm cellar. Newcomer Hobbs works hard not to oversell the drama, using the radio program as a catalyst rather than the driver of the plot, focusing on the tensions within the group, which are only heightened when a pair of dead bodies are discovered, and Dawson does not return from a trip to gather firewood. Hobbs works hard to endow even his antagonists with a measure of sympathy. He largely succeeds, elevating melodrama into an intriguing character study of different personalities under pressure. Tuazon's (Elk's Run; Tumor) art is pleasant, relying on gray wash over sketchy ink lines to create expressive body language and a loose, impressionistic feel that adds to the ominous mood. (Nov.)