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The Great Monte Hellman Returns With Road to Nowhere

Comments (0) By Nick Pinkerton Wednesday, Jun 8 2011
Not a road to somewhere, but a Road to Nowhere
Monterey Media
Not a road to somewhere, but a Road to Nowhere

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Road to Nowhere
Directed by Monte Hellman
Monterey Media
Opens June 10, Village East

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Road to Nowhere is the first feature by Monte Hellman the Great since 1989’s Silent Night, Deadly Night 3, an ignoble last chapter, that, for an artist who at his peak (Two-Lane Blacktop, Cockfighter) superbly combined an absurdist worldview and snapshot-authentic Middle America. But rather than rehashing the old hits, 79-year-old Hellman has ranged out here. Combining an almost quaint self-reflexiveness with state-of-the-art digital filmmaking, Road concerns the production of a film based on a controversial lovers’ double-suicide in North Carolina. Director Mitchell Haven (Tygh Runyan) is determined to have a young undiscovered (Shannyn Sossamon) for his lead—unaware that he’s actually cast the True Crime character’s real-life basis, living incognito after faking her death. Sossamon, with her geometric elegance and placid voice, is a captivating muse—especially good are her scenes running lines with co-star Cliff De Young. While juggling Mitchell and his star’s on-set affair, the interference of a conspiracy-minded blogger (Dominique Swain) and rockabilly insurance investigator (Waylon Payne), and sundry international intrigues, Road remains a purposefully immobile, downbeat “thriller.” The screenplay is by Variety editor Steven Gaydos, and it combines a working knowledge of on-set dynamics with corny cinephile in-joking, frequently elevated by the fresh evidence of Hellman’s craft in the tranquil, largely nocturnal atmosphere, until the closing-credits song ruins everything.

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4 comments
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Robb Hodges
Robb Hodges

You're right, Sakara. Two-Lane Blacktop and Cockfighter make him a great director. You pea-brained Latino idiot.

Sakara
Sakara

ANOTHER movie about....movies!!!!!!

As if every other movie from hollywood isn't about movies.

Even Troma has made movies about movies.

Hellman is definately a has-been, and a couple jack nicholson cheapies didn't make him a great director to begin with.

Tom Peters
Tom Peters

he's not a Great film auteur like yourself!

Wagesovfeare
Wagesovfeare

Richard Brody at the New Yorker today said ROAD TO NOWHERE was an "intricately constructed neo-noir drama.. a paradox: it’s an eruptive mosaic meticulously composed."

And he actually signed his real name.

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/onlin...

 
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