Tribeca 2015: William Monahan’s film is sick and twisted, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing
Garrett Hedlund plays a rich, spoiled Hollywood star. Oscar Isaac plays a drifter who might be the devil himself. And in William Monahan‘s seriously twisted “Mojave,” which had its world premiere on Saturday night at the Tribeca Film Festival, it’s sometimes hard to tell which of them is worse.
The directorial debut of the man who won an Oscar for writing Martin Scorsese‘s blood crime drama “The Departed,” “Mojave” takes noir to another level, mixing biblical and Shakespearean allusions, philosophical discussions and Hollywood satire with beatings, shootings, car wrecks and lots of thoroughly unpleasant behavior.
It’s sometimes messy and overwrought and always thoroughly implausible, but you don’t go to something like this to have it make sense – instead, you want it to be damned entertaining. And it certainly is that, particularly when Isaac is onscreen.
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The idea for the film came to him, Monaghan said in a post-screening Q&A, when the writer took a trip to the desert. “I was sitting by the campfire and I thought, What if there was another shithead like me out here?”
That’s what happens at the beginning of the film: Seeking an escape from all the awful fame he’s achieved, Hedlund’s character Thomas runs away from his mistress, his wife and kids, his agent, his producer and everybody else to take a self-destructive and maybe even suicidal trip to the Mojave Desert in Southern California.
There, he encounters Isaac’s Jack, a grubby, rifle-toting wanderer who shows up in his camp and immediately launches into a priceless discussion about how Jesus Christ was tempted by the devil when he ventured into the desert, and how Captain Ahab’s missing leg in “Moby Dick” is a needless dramatic device “like something thought up by an executive’s wife.”
Adds Jack, “I’m into motiveless malignity … I’m a Shakespeare man.”
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What follows, both in the desert and back in Hollywood, is thoroughly black and more than a little sick, mostly in a good way — and if the weird literary illusions are funnier, richer and more original than the shots at Hollywood, it figures that they would be.
(Mark Wahlberg is a hoot chewing the scenery as a coke-dealer-turned-producer, but Walton Goggins’ performance as an agent whose preferred mode is near-comatose is just as funny, and a little less cartoony.)
The film is really a duet between two men who Monahan described as “equivalent in many ways.” In a way, Hedlund and Isaac play two sides of the same coin, but Thomas is all torpor and evasion and muffled anger; Jack is sharper, more driven, more twisted and more interesting as a character. He’s one sick puppy, but you can’t take your eyes off him and you want him to keep talking – which, fortunately, he does, all the way to the bloody end.
“People go crazy in the desert,” said the writer-director in the Q&A, summing up both the impetus for the film and some of the experiences filming in the titular location. He was accompanied by Isaac, Hedlund and French actress Louise Bourgoin, who said she learned English to play the part of Hedlund’s mistress.
To be charitable, her part isn’t quite as rich as most of the male roles – and neither are any of the other women’s parts in the film – but Bourgoin described the four days she spent shooting as a pleasure nonetheless.
“Oscar and Garrett were so professional compared to French actors,” she said, “that I really want to live here.”
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Isaac was also asked to compare this experience with another film he recently completed when an audience member asked him to address the main differences between making the new “Star Wars” movie and acting in a low-budget indie.
“Really bad food,” he said quickly. Then he paused and looked at Monahan.
“The bad food was on ‘Star Wars,'” he said with a grin. “Really healthy stuff.”
25 Must-See Movies at Tribeca Film Festival (Photos)
"The Adderall Diaries" sees a troubled writer played by James Franco throw himself into a hot murder case in an attempt to curb prescription drug addiction and get his mojo back.
Rabbitbandini ProductionsRichard Gere's "Franny" tells of a wealthy eccentric who meddles in the affairs of a recently deceased friend's daughter (Dakota Fanning) and her husband (Theo James).
Big Shoes Media"Havana Motor Club" is a lively documentary about the underground automotive scene in Havana, which thrived long after Castro banned drag racing in the 50s.
From executive producer Michael Strahan, "Play it Forward" is a documentary following hall-of-fame hopeful Tony Gonzalez as he finished his last year in the NFL.
A legend in New York and documentary filmmaking, Albert Maysles' posthumous "In Transit" tugs appropriate heartstrings as it follows passengers on the nation's most highly trafficked train route "The Empire Builder."
"Song of Lahore," another documentary, celebrates the brave musicians who struggled to maintain their artistry after the Islamization of Pakistan in the 1970s.
"Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle" positions the seemingly benign Taser, manufactured in 1999 as a deadly weapon police apply with little to no regulation.
Leah Wolchok brings unfettered access to the instution of The New Yorker's single panel cartoons with "Very Semi-Serious."
In "A Courtship," Amy Kohn takes a sensitive lens to the conventions of a modern Christian courtship, wherein young women entrust their families to find a suitable husband in step with their faith.
Jean Finlay gives a fascinating look at a mysterious singer who sounded note-for-note like Elvis Presley, was exploited by record companies and heard by adoring fans since the 1970s in "Orion: The Man Who Would Be King."
Comic filmmaker and Internet child Patrick O’Brien documents his journey with ALS, aimed to fly in the face of the degenerative disease as well as offer a few laughs in "TransFatty Lives."
"Anesthesia" packs a major star cast in this drama about the intersecting lives of lonely New Yorkers played by Kristen Stewart, Sam Waterston, Glenn Close, Corey Stoll, Gretchen Mol and Michael K. Williams.
"Bleeding Heart" sees another leading lady effort from Jessica Biel, content in a yuppie clean living existence until she's burdened with taking in her troubled younger sister. The latter has a deeper effect on the former, as Biel's character's perfect world comes undone.
In a strange but sweet scenario, "Maggie" sees Arnold Schwarzenegger as a father in denial about his daughter's (Abigail Breslin) affliction: she's rapidly become a zombie thanks to an outbreak in their farming town.
Equal parts comical and violent, "Mojave" reteams Oscar Isaac and Garrett Hedlund ("Inside Llewyn Davis") on a road trip adventure with a dark bend.
"A Nazi Legacy: What Our Fathers Did" finds two living sons of Nazis convicted in the Nuremberg trials, probing at memory, legacy and the remembrances of a historical horrors.
"Prescription Thugs" sees documentarian Chris Bell dress down the giants of the American pharmaceutical companies as he previously did steroids in "Bigger Stronger Faster."
A four year lesson from Noam Chomsky on what has created profound American economic disparity is packaged in "Interests," from directors Peter Hutchison, Kelly Nyks, and Jared P. Scott.
Executive producer Martin Scorsese and director Nick Sandow ("Orange Is The New Black") weave a fascinating tale of a man obsessed with mob movies (Vincent Piazza) and his wife (recent Oscar winner Patricia Arquette) as they chase drugs and money in efforts to recreate the lifestyle.
Amber Heard and Christopher Walken make an odd and wonderful father-daughter team in "When I Live My Life Over Again," where Heard's flighty city girl heads to the Hamptons home of her dad, a former singer.
Famed Italian filmmaking brothers Paolo and Vittorio Taviani offer up "Wondrous Boccaccio," a gorgeous tale about a group that escapes the plague in Florence for an artistic retreat in the country.
"A Ballerina's Tale" is the hotly anticipated documentary starring Misty Copeland, the first African-American female soloist at New York’s American Ballet Theatre
"Rifftrax Live: The Room" reteams Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" to skewer cult classic films. In this case, they set their sights on Tommy Wiseau's "The Room."
"Goodfellas" clearly isn't a premier title but rather a 25th anniversary screening, and what better place to roll out the Ray Liotta classic than Tribeca?
Traditional production of Saké has changed very little over the centuries. Erik Shirai’s "The Birth of Saké" offers a rare glimpse into a family-run brewery that’s been operating for over 100 years.
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From thoughtful documentaries like “A Courtship” and “In Transit” to dramas such as “Anesthesia,” see the can’t-miss premiere titles
"The Adderall Diaries" sees a troubled writer played by James Franco throw himself into a hot murder case in an attempt to curb prescription drug addiction and get his mojo back.
