He spends his time frequenting a local diner, staffed by kind waitress Melinda (Dana Powell), working the night shift at a gas station with family friend Arthur (Delroy Lindo), and painting murals on the walls of his room.

Joe Leydon of Variety was positively affected by the film, writing "One of the more impressive qualities of “Battlecreek,” a slow-burn drama set in a sultry Mississippi town, is the way it upends audience expectations by taking a surprise detour or two while covering familiar ground.

"[2] According to Gary Goldstein of the Los Angeles Times, "Anthea Anka's earnest script manages to paint Henry as a kindly, poetic fellow, but with enough quiet self-possession to avoid sinking him in pathos.

"[3] Justin Lowe of The Hollywood Reporter was unimpressed, writing "Anka’s first produced script only fitfully resists the temptation to rely on cliches rather than creativity to tell Henry’s belated coming-of-age story.

Eastwood seems disinclined to salvage the film from sentimental wallowing, either, indulging Anka’s conventionally conceived predilection for redeeming her physically and morally flawed characters, along with a set of predictable plot points that converge only with deliberate force.