The Dry Land

At the center of writer-director Ryan Piers Williams' small, earnest indie drama The Dry Land is actor-to-watch Ryan O'Nan: He gives a quietly riveting performance as an Iraq-war veteran who comes undone after he returns home to dusty Texas (the filmmaker's home turf) and the welcome of a loving wife (America Ferrera, the filmmaker's fiancée). Just another cost-of-war movie, you say? Yes, and that's exactly the point.