Article updated: 12/27/2012 7:39 AM

'Promised Land' a cynical tale of sales and sellouts

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Global gas spokesman Steve Butler (Matt Damon) tries to persuade a small Pennsylvania town to let his company drill for oil in Gus Van Sant's "Promised Land."

Global gas spokesman Steve Butler (Matt Damon) tries to put the move on a Pennsylvania schoolteacher (Rosemarie DeWitt) in Gus Van Sant's "Promised Land."

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Global gas spokesman Steve Butler (Matt Damon) faces off with an environmental activist (John Krasinski) in Gus Van Sant's "Promised Land."

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"Promised Land," Gus Van Sant's restrained examination of personal ethics, shady business practices, energy exploitation and community desperation, takes place during a terrible time in America where small communities hammered by a bad economy have to juggle benefits vs. drawbacks of letting a corporation come to their rescue - with strings attached. Here, the bad guy becomes the good guy.

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