IMDB Score – 6.5
RT Score – 84%
VOD

I’m calling it right now. Paul Rudd is going to break through with an amazing acting performance in the next year or two because he was pretty fantastic in this. David Gordon Green directs this after having two monumental bombs in The Sitter and Your Highness. I haven’t seen his previous films but I enjoyed Pineapple Express enough to give this a watch and was pleasantly surprised. The film revolves around Rudd and Emile Hersch as two road workers painting lines and pasting reflectors on a stretch on roads leading in and out of the Texas wilderness. The film doesn’t really give us more than that story wise but the magic is in the visuals, music, and conversations that the two of them have. Both give very low key but enigmatic performances. Rudd plays a loner out to make money for his family at home. I understand that sentence didn’t make sense but that’s his character. Hersch plays the brother of Rudd’s girlfriend and is basically an idiot with a heart. The two play off each other very well and both deserve credit for their performances.

The film is a bit of a mystery though. It’s very odd in the way the two of them interact with the only other characters in the movie. Green usues some interesting techniques to film some of the conversations and you never really know if the two are meeting some off people during their job or if they’ve gone crazy from isolation and inhaling fumes. Green directs with a great sense of nature and incorporates a GREAT score by Explosions in the Sky. Overall the film worked for me and is a great subtle film to enjoy and kind of lose yourself in the wilderness with two very good actors.

3.5/5