Drive far sufficient down a abandoned freeway, and also you’ll ultimately discover spots the place the remnants of a civilized society met the unrelenting forces of loss of life, entropy, and decay. Crumbling buildings give approach to new ecosystems as Mom Nature takes again the areas that humanity briefly leased. These deserted areas are reminders that there’s nothing we are able to do on this planet that the universe gained’t finally undo. Our solely alternative within the matter is whether or not we see that as miserable or poetic.
Rely Alex Clark (Kai Lennox) among the many latter camp. The acclaimed photographer spent a lot of his youth ripping by way of the American Southwest in a automobile by himself, intentionally making an attempt to get misplaced in order that he’d ultimately discover cool photos to snap. His pictures of decaying buildings earned him his first brushes with fame, and a midlife disaster has now prompted him to attempt to recreate his unique system for achievement. He left his telephone and GPS at residence and spends his days meandering by way of the desert searching for a front-row seat to nature’s reclamation course of.
Every night time, he checks into a distinct petri dish with a emptiness signal out entrance and calls his spouse, Sam (Sarah Lind). She understands Alex’s must retrace his personal steps in an effort to reinvigorate his creativity, even when she isn’t at all times thrilled by the logistics that the mission requires. Once they grasp up after he regales her with tales of his day spent photographing empty theaters, she has no motive to anticipate the following one might be something out of the bizarre.
However whereas Sam’s night time proceeds as deliberate, Alex’s takes a flip when he calls the entrance desk to report a noise criticism. When his loud neighbor, Renny (Zachary Ray Sherman) — who appears like he may have performed Jesse Pinkman in a porn remake of “Breaking Dangerous” — exhibits as much as apologize, he presents Alex the possibility to social gathering along with his prostitute sister Suzie Q (Ashley B. Smith). Whereas Alex has the decency to not settle for that provide on the spot, he ultimately lets the siblings right into a room beneath the guise of taking their picture. It isn’t lengthy earlier than they spend the night time getting hammered on moonshine, and Alex caves to his baser instincts and sleeps with Suzie.
The outdated criticism that horror film characters could be alive in the event that they made smarter selections is often a drained trope rooted in a lame misunderstanding of what style films are purported to do. However this could be one of many uncommon instances the place it has a little bit of validity. Alex makes a sequence of selections so baffling that it virtually appears like a twist when he inevitably goes lacking — as a result of any viewer with a touch of media literacy would anticipate first-time author/director Josh Erkman to be establishing some “Barbarian”-style misdirection. However alas, generally life is so simple as realizing that the individuals who seem to be they radiate chlamydia and hazard truly do!
That’s the place “A Desert” really begins, because the movie has extra to do with the seek for Alex than his precise demise. Sam instantly is aware of one thing is improper when she stops receiving nightly telephone calls from random resorts, and hires personal investigator Harry Paladino (David Yow) to trace him down. A former cop who misplaced his badge beneath suspicious circumstances, Mr. Paladino is definitely a person who has seen higher days. The rumpled P.I. implores Sam to think about the likelihood that her husband is hiding a darkish vice from her, as he believes that everybody has a secret that results in their downfall. His inside logic is probably going a results of his personal style for affordable booze and car parking zone handjobs that quickly derails the investigation, prompting Sam to intervene and think about the likelihood that the underbelly of Americana that her husband spent his life documenting is darker than she ever imagined.
Structurally, “A Desert” is a quintessential neo-noir story a couple of man who goes lacking and a spouse who will get greater than she bargained for when she hires personal detectives to search out him. However the movie breaks from style custom with its willingness to let a lot of its greatest mysteries go unsolved. Erkman fills in a few of these gaps with touches of surreal horror, however is usually content material to let the viewers bask within the unsettling desert vibes. An avid desert photographer in his personal proper, the filmmaker frames his many pictures of crumbling roadside Americana like a deep sea nature documentary — you by no means know when the enemy hiding in plain sight is about to pounce. And like these pictures, “A Desert” gained’t be really completed till the viewers tasks their very own fears into the darkish corners that it fails to light up.
The movie’s wild ending will decide whether or not or not a viewer enjoys the movie. However relatively than making an attempt to know precisely what it means, you’re higher off appreciating it like one among Alex’s pictures. Identical to an deserted roadside diner changing into overrun by fungi and rodent’s nests, generally the vacancy is the purpose. If you take away the constraints of human civilization, there’s no telling what would possibly develop within the empty house you permit behind.
Grade: B
“A Desert” premiered on the 2024 Tribeca Movie Competition. It’s at the moment in search of U.S. distribution.