Jacob Lofland's Second Ever Role Was In A Heartbreaking Drama That Needs More Love

Back in 2012, Jacob Lofland made his screen debut in the Matthew McConaughey-led drama "Mud." Two years later, he followed it up with "Little Accidents," another Southern-set film, this time about a small town rocked by a mining accident. Lofland typically brings a gentle energy to the characters he portrays, and that includes Cooper Norris, a fella who's endlessly understanding and supportive of his bereaved new love, Ariana Medina (Paulina Chavez), across the first two seasons of "Landman." That being the case, watching him play a killer in "Little Accidents," albeit an unwitting one, makes for a striking change of pace.

The thing about "Landman" is that it's able to switch from the sublime to the ridiculous and somehow still feel cohesive. One minute, Ali Larter's Angela Norris is hurling dinner plates at Billy Bob Thornton's Tommy Norris; the next, Tommy is having a truly affecting conversation with his son about his failures as a father. It's bewildering in the best way possible, and that's surely part of what's made the series as big a hit as it's become.

If the show's more naturalistic inclinations are summed up by any one character, though, it's Lofland's Cooper. In "Mud," the young actor was effortlessly believable as a wayward Arkansas boy (partly because he was a native of the Natural State and partly because he's just talented). In "Landman," he brings that same realism to the role of the Norris scion, proving that he's at his best in grounded dramas (though Lofland was also great in the beloved "Maze Runner" film trilogy). That's partly why it's a real shame that "Little Accidents" is as overlooked as it is.

In 2018, Sara Colangelo oversaw (arguably) Maggie Gyllenhaal's best movie, "The Kindergarten Teacher." But in order to direct that compelling portrait of a conflicted middle-aged teacher who longs for deeper meaning in her life, Colangelo had to make her name. She did so with "Little Accidents," an independent drama which she wrote and directed. Her feature directorial debut was an extrapolation of her 2010 short film of the same name, which similarly focused on the aftermath of an accident and was set in Colangelo's hometown in Northeast Massachusetts. When it came time to expand the short film into a feature, the filmmaker shifted the location to West Virginia to follow characters in the heart of coal country.

The feature length version of "Little Accidents" was partly inspired by the real-life 2006 Sago Mine disaster and the 2010 Upper Big Branch Mine disaster in West Virginia. It explores the consequences of a coal mining accident that claims the lives of 10 miners. Boyd Holbrook plays sole survivor Amos Jenkins, who finds himself caught between his father, who wants to keep the mine's safety failings under wraps, and the families of the dead miners, who want to pursue litigation and need Amos' testimony. Elizabeth Banks plays Diana Doyle, the wife of the coal mine's supervisor who becomes entangled with Amos after her own son, JT Doyle (Travis Tope), goes missing. Then, there's Jacob Lofland, who portrays Owen Briggs, the teenaged son of one of the deceased miners. When a confrontation between Owen and JT leads to the accidental death of the latter, Owen is forced to conceal the horrifying truth. As you might expect, Lofland is excellent, and it seems Colangelo knew as much before he was cast.

Speaking with Paste in 2015, Sara Colangelo revealed that she sought out Jacob Lofland after seeing his performance in "Mud." As she recalled, the film left her thinking, "Okay, that's an incredible kid," and she went on to dub the actor "spellbinding." The young Lofland originally had no ambition to act, though, and was cast in "Mud" only after his mother encouraged him to apply for Jeff Nichols' drama. "It was sort of like, 'Will he even give me the time of day?'" continued Colangelo. "He was just in a Jeff Nichols movie! He really ended up liking the script, and we just hit it off."

Lofland was only roughly 17 years old when he filmed "Little Accidents," yet he projects the same sense of being wise beyond his years in the movie that he uses to great effect in "Landman." It's not just Lofland, either. Though critics weren't unanimously bowled over by Colangelo's directorial debut and its heavy melodrama (see: its 56% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes), its performances received praise across the board, with Tom Long writing for the Detroit News that "nothing feels forced in this movie, which is testament to Colangelo's skill as well as the cast's." That's a very apt description of Lofland's performances in general, which is why "Little Secrets" is such a good showcase for him.

While Lofland went on to appear in "Joker: Folie à Deux," and other high-profile projects, Colangelo eventually directed "The Kindergarten Teacher" and 2020's "Worth," which follow a similar rubric to "Little Accidents" in terms of examining the fallout of an accident, this time a much bigger one: 9/11. "Worth" performed much better critically, but "Little Accidents" remains an overlooked gem in both Colangelo and Lofland's filmography.