BrendanW 
I received this screener on behalf of Circeo Films.
It’s very hard to make films with a large featured cast and make sure that everyone involved has some substantial part in the film. Hail, Caesar! did that recently with great success but it is not something that is easily pulled off. On the other side of the coin, a film with a very small cast (like this one) is often seen as ‘easier’ to do because of the smaller amount of people and possibly less costume/location changes involved as well as most films with a tiny cast tend to stick around 2-3 main locations and take place within a short timeframe. However, I believe that to be incorrect. Films with a smaller cast are also very difficult for a different reason and that is simply an issue of holding an audience’s interest. What we have with this film is a few locations, three actors, and a 102-minute running time that they must utilize in a way to hold everyone’s attention right until the credits roll. They accomplish this feat for the most part.
Fans of Deadwood or Community may know Larry Cedar from those shows. Here he plays Lyle, a magician who is on his way to a “Vegas” gig and just happens to pass through a small out-of-nowhere location when he becomes lost en route and needs coolant for his car. He encounters an older Native American woman living off the land and the water that her grandson must deliver to her by selling some of her ancient dolls. What follows is a very abstract film that can not really be explained in layman’s terms. There is some strange stuff that goes down and what is interesting about it is that the film never stops to tell you why this is happening or exactly what is going down. It’s a great quality in this day and age of over-written films that this one doesn’t talk to the audience like a child or an uninformed adult. We witness everything through the eyes of Lyle and experience his bewilderment and occasional discomfort. This can be a bit discerning because of several factors.
Lyle is not necessarily a wonderful human being. At the beginning of the film, we quickly learn that he is a magician and we see him swindle a gas station attendant with one of his parlour tricks as he gets to keep his $20 rather than pay the man. That seems to clash with the idea that this man is doing Vegas gigs but later we learn that he may not be the world-famous magician that he originally claimed to be in front of his new acquaintances. He is also fairly ignorant towards Mabel, the older Native woman, even questioning her name at one point and then even belittling her grandson’s accent. Still, it almost makes him more relateable that he is a flawed character rather than a perfect specimen of a human being.
Mabel and her grandson are very interesting as well. She doesn’t speak a lot (at least not compared to Lyle) but when she does, her words carry a certain weight even if we don’t always understand what she is trying to say to us. She is almost a mystical character and we even start to wonder if she’s even “of this world.” I don’t want to give away too much but she definitely has an otherworldly presence. Her grandson, however, feels a lot more grounded. He is another flawed character trying to provide for his grandmother and give her fresh water but he also has a shady past of being an alcoholic and needing to pay for trips to rehabilitation. It appears that he is very weary of Lyle mostly because he sees similarities in himself and confronting his own flaws scares him.
OK, I talked a lot about the characters so now let’s talk about the visual aspects of the film. The camera work is wonderfully subtle and quiet, which is perfect for this film’s aesthetic. The scenery of the desert in which the characters inhabit is perfectly tranquil and is almost a character all on its own. There is nothing flashy about the cinematography though. It is not done in a sort-of show-off kind of way like you see in some independant films but rather it is very appropriate for its subject matter. It also helps to create a couple of very funny moments like an early scene in which Lyle encounters a gas station attendant dancing with the help of his truck’s headlights in preparation of a dream career to go to Hollywood and become a world-famous dancer. The way he moves while Lyle looks on amused creates a very funny juxtaposition between the two actors.
We have a very good script on our hands here as well. You can tell that Jennifer Corcoran, the film’s writer/director, has a real passion for her subject and wrote this film from the heart. We get to witness characters change but not in an unnatural way. Characters change in a very natural, progressive manner that makes sense to us. There is a wonderful metaphor involving rain late in the film that I wouldn’t dare go into for those of you who haven’t seen it but it’s quite beautiful. Lyle also has some great lines in a scene where he performs a magic show for Mabel as they wait for her grandson to arrive with water. You can see his love of magic in the form of cheap parlour tricks while Mabel possesses more of a salt-of-the-earth kind of magic and the comparisons between the two are stunning to witness.
It makes me happy and sad at the same time to see an independant film like this. I am happy because I get to see a beautiful film and tell everyone about it but sad at the same time that films like this have a harder time getting major distributors and a wider viewing audience.
I can’t recommend enough that you purchase this film when it eventually becomes available later this year on VOD.
*****
Rating System:
* (Brutal; the worst rating)
** (Some elements keep it from being awful but still not very good)
*** (Completely watchable; a rental as old-timers might say)
**** (Great film with a few things here and there keeping it from being perfect)
***** (Flawless; a true achievement)
