The Frontier (2016)

To me, this movie is perfection.

best movie i've ever seen.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

With its stylish cinematography and labyrinthine plot The Frontier is up there as one of the best of the bygone era of intentionally slow paced, suspenseful, well crafted film making. If you miss the films of yesteryear, the ones that had grit, character and an aesthetic sensibility, then you are going to want to see The Frontier. This film has all of that and then some.Director Oren Shai takes you in to a dreamy, shadowy world that looks a lot like the covers of the hard-boiled pulp novels of the 50's and 60's. Every shot is gorgeously cinematic and my favorite thing about this movie is how much space Shai gives the viewer just to observe and revel in moments between the dialogue. The story is told as much through a frame on a characters face with a certain look in their eye, or a shot of landscape that portrays the remote emptiness they are surrounded by, as it is by its clever sharp-tongued dialogue. A haunting score adds to the richness of the visuals as well.I won't give too much away about the plot, but the story centers around Laine (exquisitely played by Jocelin Donahue) who we don't know much about except that she's a girl on the run. Where she came from or where she's going nobody knows. All we know is that she stumbles upon a kooky set of misfit thieves, awaiting their loot in a dusty motel in the desert, and she seems to be trying to escape danger but has landed in to something that could be far worse. But the heroine is up to tricks of her own and soon we can't tell if she's the one in trouble or the one making it. The plot that starts off steady and cool, quickly becomes a roller coaster ride of twisty turns, girls with guns, double crossing, triple crossing and good guys gone bad, bad guys gone even worse. It's great fun to watch and just when you think you know what's happening, you're on to another jaw-dropping scenario.All in all, it's very entertaining but also a great piece art. I'm very happy to have discovered this hidden gem and I highly recommend!

Oren Shai knows his archetypes, and plays brilliantly with them in this film-literate, paperback movie, artfully constructed with a wonderfully enigmatic central performance by Jocelin Donahue, playing a role similar to Nic Cage in RED ROCK WEST. The comparison is one that kept popping up in my mind. Both titles suggest Westerns but are in reality dusty, Southwestern Noirs, Both have the lead stumbling into a criminal scheme and then creating their own. Similar, also, is Shai's film to John Dahl's follow-up Noir, THE LAST SEDUCTION, in which we follow the femme fatale, instead of the tragic male.If made in the 90's, like the aforementioned pictures, I think this would be enjoying a wide-release right now. It clearly has the skill behind it. Shai is a beautiful stylist, creating the timeless palate of a decade never mentioned, but most likely the 70's, given the cars and wardrobe. However, the actors put their spin on movie stars of decades previous. There's Kelly Lynch doing her version of Gloria Swanson, Richard Harris doing his Errol Flynn, and Jim Beaver doing a Lee Marvin. Beaver stands out as the strongest. As much as the film portrays a slice of Americana Pulp, there's something almost European about the execution. It bypasses the luridness of the genre, and instead focusing on the lead, Donahue; photographing her lovingly, magnetically, like a muse, with long contemplative zooms. She has never looked better. And although we never fully learn about her character, she brings her inherent likability to it. She can be the Margot Kidder of our generation.Although it starts rather seriously, there is a streak of black humor laced throughout that begins to escalate, climaxing with a delirious shift by Kelly Lynch. I suggest watching with an audience to bring out the potential camp.Oh, and it's shot on 16mm. What else do you want?

The Plot.Laine, a young woman on the run from the law, turns up at the Frontier, an isolated desert diner and motel. She is offered a job by Luanne, the owner, and, hoping to lose herself in the obscurity of the place, accepts the job. But soon Laine realizes she has stumbled into an even bigger and more dangerous situation. Firstly, i like the Twin Peaks look of the film. But it's very slow and the female lead is not a particularly good actress. She brings the movie down.The dialog is second rate. It's hard to emulate Lynch because he's genuinely quirky and knows how to make it work. In fact, the more I watched this film, the more I felt it was just a Lynch rip off thank anything else.

Laine is on the run from the law.turning up at the Frontier, an isolated desert diner and motel, she is offered a job by Luanne, the owner, and, hoping to lose herself in the obscurity of the place, accepts the job. But soon Laine realises she has stumbled into an even bigger and more dangerous situation, with the most eclectic and bizarre of clientele........The frontier is a really odd film that cannot decide what genre it belongs in. Is it a Western? It sure has the setting and the elements to place it in that genre, but the surrounding narrative almost turns the film into some sort of hazy fantasy where nothing is what is seems.This turns the film into something a little Lynchian, as when we are in the titular eatery with our bizarre group, it almost feels like its riffing on Twin Peaks, but not as bonkers or as clued up as that masterpiece.All the characters have these strange traits that are nothing more than maundering when it comes to the third act. The film questions if Laine is in some sort of purgatory, because it feels like she cannot leave the place, much like everyone else, but it isn't properly explained, and this is where it starts to feel like Identity, an equally unnecessarily baffling film about people stuck in a place, which also has a disappointing ending.It's never really clear what time the film is set. I thought at first it was in the present, but halfway through the film, a character spins a yarn about Hollywood, placing it firmly in the forties, but this is never confirmed, again suggesting the film has some sort of afterlife feel to it.The conclusion is as disappointing and baffling as the previous ninety minutes, and despite the good intentions of the cast, whom all put in decent performances, it just adds up to nothing and ends with a 'what was that all about then' rather than a nicely wrapped up conclusion.