Have you ever felt hopelessly stuck? Like no matter what you do, you always end up in the same bad place?This is the problem faced by the heroine desert road. After a car accident in a remote desert, no matter what Claire DeVoe (Christine Froseth) does, she ends up right back where she started. These parts do not fit together. Time is up. At times several of the people she met seemed to know her and even fear her.
A unique thriller that plays with time outside of typical time groundhog day loop structure, desert road An indie gem that you absolutely must seek out.
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desert road offers an unusual horror movie heroine.
Forget those shy nannies or the cheeky women in horror movies.Forget meta heroines, they’re so familiar with genre movies that they can almost predict what’s going to happen next, whether it’s zombies, vampires, or back to the Future-style antics.what makes desert roadWhat’s remarkable about the heroine is that she doesn’t pander to tired stereotypes. She is neither a clueless victim nor a frightened teenager.
Claire doesn’t have any mysterious backstory to tie into the plot. She’s not particularly good at anything – at least if you ask her. She dreams of becoming a photographer but blushes when someone calls her. The photographer is paid for her work, but the photos she takes are not seen by anyone.
Maybe she is her own worst critic, her own worst enemy, her own self-saboteur. But when she encounters difficulties, she fends for herself. When her tire breaks, she is expert at replacing it. At a nearby gas station, she quickly uncovers a scam by a sketchy clerk (Max Mattern). But no matter how smart and capable she is, she doesn’t know what to do when she can’t escape the desert road of the same name. Time and time again, she walked from point A to point B, then to point C, and finally back to point A again. How can this be? What does it mean? Is she dead? Is she doomed? Is there any way out?
desert road is a lean, mind-bending thriller.
There’s a sophisticated cunningness to the storytelling here. Writer-director Shannon Triplett refuses to accept the rules and clichés of so many science fiction stories of the past. When the pieces start to add up, we can do nothing but marvel.
The horror here is that this scene begins in such a mundane way. It’s easy to imagine yourself in a similar situation, but the solution is harder to think of. Thankfully, Claire is our gritty guide, spouting enough frustrating monologues to herself and pointed dialogue to others that we can follow along as she maps out this tricky terrain She followed her along. Froese carries this journey with gumption and charisma, and with a righteous fury. She’s on fire, and it’s exciting to watch her get burned — or scorch someone else.
desert road Have great supporters.
With a cast filled with some familiar faces but few big-name stars, the story has a mesmerizing authenticity even in its mind-bending plot twists. Mattern plays the aforementioned convenience store clerk, exuding a fidgety energy that’s both familiar and suspiciously familiar. Maybe he’s not trustworthy. Maybe it’s because he’s socially awkward. In this ambiguous situation, it’s hard to tell whether Claire is paranoid or has something on her mind when she pesters him.
Elsewhere, a security guard here (D.B. Woodside in a steely manner) and a mysterious nomad there (Frances Fisher, giving the old woman her mystique) make the desert around her act in unexpected ways Get active. But the most touching moment occurs when she meets an old man, played by Beau Bridges, who is driving alone at night. His name was teased in the closing credits, but I was too entranced by the movie unfolding before me to notice it—until I heard the familiar, soft drawl of a voice offering up our heroine (and us) Got some roadside wisdom. The nature of the character is a spoiler, so I won’t reveal it, other than to say that Bridges became a calm voice in the storm.After building tension with this fantastic story, Bridges becomes Desert road.
Movies like this are why we go to film festivals. Of course, there are some flashier headlines at SXSW 2024.However, when watching a movie like Desert road. This is a film that tells a story. It is evocative rather than explanatory. Its astute casting and rejection of time travel tropes lend the film a dizzying spontaneity that makes it impossible to predict what will happen next.This is a very rare treasure in today’s movies, but even more so in a time travel story post groundhog dayinevitably comparing yourself to all others.
simply put, desert road Follow a unique path that takes viewers on a twisting, tense, and extremely exciting journey.
desert road The film’s world premiere at SXSW 2024 was met with scrutiny.
