The Frontier (2016)

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

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?

I think this was actually a very good film! I wasn't expecting much, but it's one of those films that don't appear to have a promising plot at first, but then it grows on you through the good acting and the steadily increasing suspense!I just love the way Laine evolves as a character, or rather how we as viewers change the way we see her as the movie goes on... Very fine piece of characterization!Some crime thriller taking place in a run-down motel off some desert road doesn't sound like a big deal, but this IS a very good suspense thriller, with a lot of unexpected plot twists! It had me at the edge of my seat for most of the second half. It's not the setting or even the events themselves that make for a GREAT film, it's the way they get to us as viewers, and this film really got to me :)So I'd recommend this film to all lovers of suspenseful, unexpected thrillers :D

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.

A gritty American Southwest flick, The Frontier manages to capture a western outlaw atmosphere in a rustic wind blown environment.A pretty, mysterious girl named Laine driving across the Arizona desert becomes temporarily employed at a diner to make up for food & lodging. The residents and customers therein are a motley lot, each with their own disturbing secrets, and each sharing a collective one as well. There's Eddie the rebel {a brash leather-clad young man reminiscent of Jim Stark/James Dean}; couple Gloria & Flynn are a British gentleman & a Jayne Mansfield-type girlfriend; Luanne, an eccentric former showgirl {diner owner, glamorous yet quite neurotic}; Lee is a stony bearded professor-like gentleman; & Officer Gault comes and goes, reminding one of a William Shatner character*, who takes a shine to Laine, especially evident in the end. Incidentally, despite a very close call with The Reaper, Laine merges with the unlikely crew of malfeasants awaiting their ill- gotten reward, utilizing venomous trickery to gain her own deadly remuneration.With various unexpected twists and turns, the dangerous path throughout The Frontier leads to surprise lethal treasures awaiting those with a ruthlessly lawless disposition, where few survive. ∞_____________ * i.e., Mark Preston of The Devil's Rain, Rack Hansen of Kingdom of The Spiders.