Twentynine Palms (2004)

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

i saw this film on DVD recently without reading or looking at reviews here but stupid friend of mine said he loved the ending ,because its a horror movie (that was enough to convince me to give it a shot ) so i put the DVD in the DVD player ,and movie starts : its a long road film (not the fun type of road movies )it begins with a photographer and a model taking road trips ,and how they started their relationship in this ''lets have sex at every nice location road movie'' and i was hoping i would enjoy some scenes but apparently the model wasn't Letitia casta type of sexy model either,,there are some great locations here (a plus for good directing) ,just the first 20 mins passed and i had double thought to force myself to watch 2 hours long of unstable relationships between the two,or skip the long driving scenes through the landscape (nice jeep though),the dialogue was just kind of weird ,sex scene,then another sex scene ,then another , sex in swimming pool nice ,sex on rocks ,COOL ,adventurous sex scene almost i forgot i got a GF watching with me,yeah right,,i really thought about stop watching after 1 hour but decided to make coffee and continue ,then the last accident with 3 thugs appeared out of nowhere as they took the couple in good beat down for my amusement for putting me to boring film,but hey those guys spiced up the story out of sudden its now a got horror elements like hills have eyes moment involving in rape and assault leaving the couple wounded(that's the horror you guys are talking about ?)well,now the leading male actor pulled a Friday th13 final chapter on his girlfriend ,die die die stabbing his girl ,because his mind is unstable due to the rape so he unleash it on the his girlfriend model ,the movie ends with police arriving to bust him in the desert the end,so i asked my GF what she thinks of the film she said you better take that film off the DVD shelf and throw it in the garbage which i did gladly overall good director ,bad actors,bad dialogue,this film is not horror i repeat not horror,i really don't know why reviewers are saying its horror film,its not,check your brain cells again please you cant label a movie just for the last 20 mins of horrific accident to turn characters to a killer with Michael Myers favorite knifing segment (how did he got a knife again ?)of course i called my friend who recommended the movie for me the next day and i told him he is an idiot and i hang up the phone quickly lol

May contain spoilers.A couple drive about arguing, eating, getting naked in the desert and occasionally having some animalistic sex. There is no real plot. There is no depth to the characters. The woman is a completely vapid idiot. The guy is a shaggy haired Burk. The only positive for the almost two hours running time are some nice scenic shots. The movie contains every cliché of art house cinema. Long periods of silence, close ups of characters faces as they begin to cry, characters talking in different languages to each other, a three legged animal, it's like a student film maker saying "look, at me I'm being arty".Then in the final fifteen minutes the film turns "Dark". A totally unprovoked and vicious sexual attack takes place. The aftermath of which is probably more shocking than the event. These few scenes are made more shocking by how mundane the rest of the movie is. Which I feel is a cheat. I wasn't shocked because I cared about the characters it was just the visual of this scene. Remove this from the movie and there's literally nothing you would remember about it.Described as an experimental horror film, I don't know what the experiment was. Maybe it's whether you can get away with an hour and half of nothing as long as you stick something nasty on the end. I think the experiment was a waste of time.

Twentynine palms captures the atmosphere of the high desert, I am English and I have been to the area, I found it to be very powerful and raw, the desert isn't something that exists in England and the sense of overwhelming space with no consequence is captured brilliantly in this film.I would describe this as a photographer's film as there is very little camera movement, lots of action takes place in a mundane way in what is essentially a still image, these 'stills' are not especially beautifully composed or crafted but just real, the lack of camera movement and long lingering still shots add a sense of space and the mundane to the film.The plot is inconsequential to the atmosphere and essentially it is the place and setting with the sense of isolation that brings out the primal urges from our main characters weather they be sexual or violent. This is not classical entertainment but a brilliant art house movie, the only improvements for me would have been aesthetic, the movie could have been more crafted and still kept the atmosphere.

I watched this movie last night, and I am still feeling spaced-out :D Actually, I really liked the first half, which is all serene and normal ( I had not read many reviews...was watching it without much expectations ). Nothing much happens, but its still good. I thought it was all building up to something very interesting/moving/disturbing . I found the couple kind of interesting and sweet at first. But 70 minutes into it, I began to wonder, where exactly the film was going. The one thing that disappointed and confused me was, how the bloody climax, makes all the interesting little details of the relationship ( the ice-cream conversation, the late-night fight, oral sex in pool, David stalking his girlfriend etc ) seem irrelevant. The couple itself doesn't seem normal, but I think the climax would have been the same, irrespective of how normal/dysfunctional the couple was. An incident as horrific as that, can make anyone go mad. 90% of the 114 minutes, are focused on their relationship, but the "horror element" which arrived in the last 5-10 minutes of the film, just comes out of elsewhere. Sure the rape is horrible and humiliating, but it seemed to be there just for shock value. Maybe, the director wanted to show how one random horrific incident, can absolutely ruin everything...but if thats the case then the duration of the film doesn't really make sense. I think the makers have done a great job in building up the suspense....but the wait is too long and when the bad stuff happens it is just weird. For me, the climax was neither shocking nor thought-provoking (Everyone knows, man is capable of both savagery as well as saintliness) , but just very very saddening. So this movie has left me in a sad and confused state of mind. Also, I don't know, why are movies like these, are marketed as something they are not. If you promise the viewers "a deliverance meets psycho", and give them this movie, there are bound to be negative reviews. Even, the original trailer tries to make the film look so eventful and thrilling......I can understand why horror fans are badly disappointed.Its NOT a bad movie, but I would not call it a horror film either... I agree that the desert looks quite menacing, so OK that qualifies as a "thriller" element. But there is a disjointedness to this movie, which is why I would not recommend it.But if you like to watch slow, ambiguous movies and then dissect them for symbols, hidden meanings etc..then go ahead. You just might like it.