17 Sept - "Well, anybody can look happy in a photograph"

Desert Blue (1998)

dir. Morgan J. Freeman

CAST
Casey Affleck (American Pie 2, 2001)
Richmond Arquette (Scream 3, 2000)
Daniel von Bargen (The Silence of the Lambs, 1991)
Sara Gilbert (High Fidelity, 2000)
John Heard (Home Alone, 1990)
Kate Hudson (How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days, 2003)
Michael Ironside (Top Gun, 1986)
Christina Ricci (Mermaids, 1990)
Rene Rivera (Disturbia, 2007)
Peter Sarsgaard (Garden State, 2004)
Liev Schreiber (voice) (Party Girl, 1995)
Brandon Sexton III (Welcome to the Dollhouse, 1995)
Ethan Suplee (Mallrats, 1995)


So the main reason I watched this movie was that there's this song on the soundtrack that I really like. It's by New Zealand singer/songwriter Bic Runga, and it's called "Lonely Lola Cherry Cola Girl." It's not on any of her albums. I managed to get a digital copy of it back in college, I don't know how. I wanted to imbed it in this this article, but I can't find it on the youtube. I'll imbed a different song, just for fun.

I like this song because it's about unrequited love, which is old hat, obviously, but then in the chorus she goes, "something good will come OUR way" which makes me think that things are going to look up not just for the singer, but for the object of her affection. That makes me think that things aren't going so hot for the other person either, which is sad but also reassuring. This is a good segway into the film analysis.

You mught notice a teenaged Kate Hudson up there on the cover, she plays a young TV actress who, while on a road trip with her father, gets quarantined in the small desert town of Baxter following a truck accident and a mysterious death. The trick is that this movie isn't really about that character, but it's really about Blue Baxter, son of the town's recently deceased founder, as it takes this monumental interruption to everyday life to make him come to terms with the impact of his father's death. The town's other teenagers, Casey Affleck, Christina Ricci, and Ethan Suplee, also grapple with the insidious revelation that not all dreams can come true, of course, some dreams are bigger than others. There's a cute little bit where the kids are sitting around a bonfire and Kate Hudson asks something along the lines of, 'If you knew you were going to die tomorrow, what would you do?" and of course they all start making out in pairs.

In other respects, this was a lot like any other lightly comedic, independent film about young people coming of age. I don't think it was anything particularly marvelous, but it was okay, I guess.