Yet while Campos ’ s previous movies have honed in on a single protagonist , here he finds himself in charge of a roster even Robert Altman might struggle to keep control of , with a story that spans the 20 years between the end of WWII and the beginning of the Vietnam conflict . Things are set in motion when Willard Russell ( Bill Skarsgård ) arrives home from serving in the former and immediately falls for diner waitress Charlotte ( Haley Bennett ), whom he wastes no time in wedding . The two give birth to a son , Arvin , who played by Michael Banks Repeta as a nine-year-old and Tom Holland as a late teen , is the closest the film gets to offering us a central protagonist . Divided between the podunk towns of Knockemstiff , Ohio ( which , despite its name is a real place , where author Pollock spent his childhood ) and Coal Creek , West Virginia , the narrative sprawls outwards , dragging a host of peripheral characters into Arvin ’ s orbit . There ’ s Lenora ( Eliza Scanlen ),