Psychological Thriller ‘Williston’ Set With Matt Walsh, Jonathan Lipnicki, Geneva Carr
In the first week of the new year, “Avatar: Fire and Ash” continues to clean absolute house (to clean mansion, one might say) at the box office. But if your hope for 2026 is to see a grounded and psychologically nuanced story about a conflict between Indigenous environmentalism and land development, then “Williston” appears poised to fulfill your wish. It is a psychological thriller that promises to bring depth, ambiguity, and three talented actors to this premise.
A Sophomore Feature with Three Named Stars
“Williston,” which is an adaptation of a play of the same name, will be the second film directed (and written) by Adam Seidel. Seidel’s 2025 debut, “Anywhere,” was a dramedy thriller about infidelity, brutality, and a mundane life thrown into irrevocable turmoil, set against the backdrop of a working-class oil town. “Williston” will have an even greater focus on the oil industry: it’s the story of three land developers (Matt Walsh, Jonathan Lipnicki, Geneva Carr) whose objective is to obtain the rights to the last unspoiled piece of land in the North Dakota city of Williston. The principal obstacle to this goal is the land’s Native American owner, who despises the petroleum industry.
Walsh, Carr, and Lipnicki are all accomplished in their own ways. Walsh was a two-time Emmy-nominated star on the politically satirical TV series “Veep” (2012-2019), on which he played the titular vice president’s communications director. He has also appeared in the films “Road Trip” (2000), “The Hangover” (2009), and “Novocaine” (2025), among others. Carr is best known for playing a psychologist/sex therapist on the legal drama series “Bull” (2016-2022); she also has a voice-acting role in the ongoing Disney+ series “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew” (2024-).
Lipnicki’s first film role was in the 1996 sports-comedy classic “Jerry Maguire.” He was only six years old and portrayed Ray Boyd, the son of Bonnie Hunt’s character. His subsequent film and television roles include “Stuart Little” (1999), “Dawson’s Creek” (1998-2003), “Camp Pleasant Lake” (2024), and the aforementioned “Anywhere.” He is also an executive producer for Buffalo 8, the company that is producing “Williston.”
This past Christmas Eve, via Deadline, Lipnicki described his previous collaboration with Seidel as “working briefly with Adam,” and professed to be “eager to collaborate with him again. When he brought me Williston… it presented a rare opportunity to explore the moral ambiguity of three deeply distinct personalities confined within a gripping, contained arena.” He added that he and Seidel “couldn’t have asked for more compelling performances than those delivered by Geneva and Matt,” and summed up “Williston” as “intense, unsettling, and profoundly challenging.”
A Film of Immense Promise – And What About Its Fourth Star?
Certainly, “Williston” has great potential to skillfully illuminate some very real moral and political predicaments. The titular North Dakota city experienced tremendous population growth in the 2010s, owing primarily to the North Dakota oil boom. This burgeoning period for the state’s oil industry brought plenty of economic growth and job creation, but it also had terrible consequences for Native American communities, including environmental degradation and a sharp uptick in violent crime rates due to the proximity of newly made camps housing thousands of ill-policed oil workers. Many Indigenous landowners have objected to petroleum extraction on their property.
This, of course, brings us to the subject of the fourth principal character in this potentially first-rate morality play. Nothing yet has been disclosed in regard to “Williston”‘s Native American landowner or who will portray him. This is rather perplexing, considering that his role is certainly as central to the narrative as those of any of the three named actors whose characters are working to gain the rights to his land. Let us hope that a film so dedicated to moral nuance and psychological complexity will not neglect to grant as much depth and agency to this anti-petroleum property holder as it will to those who seek to possess what is rightfully his.
“Williston” has finished production in Oklahoma, but its release date remains TBA.
