Mojave Moon (1996)

Instant Favorite.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

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

Before Angelina Jolie blew up front and centre, she got her start in some wild and wacky b movies and genre stuff, the weirdest of which has to be Mojave Moon. It's one of those low rent flicks where not much of anything happens, the characters meander in and out of a non-story and almost everyone is completely nuts. 'B movie dramedy' I suppose would be the specific sub-genre. The 'story', as it were, follows drifter Al (Danny Aiello), who meets pretty young Ellie (Jolie) in a diner and hitches a ride out to the desert for seemingly no reason at all. As Ellie takes a shine to him, he begins to fall for her mother (Anne Archer). Only problem is, her mom has a boyfriend played by Michael Biehn who is quite possibly one of the weirdest characters I've ever seen in a film. Volatile, berserkly unstable and constantly in near hysteria mode, it's an odd performance that off-sets the quirky tone straight into the twilight zone. That seems to be the idea here though, the dreamy desert climate having a strange effect on these folks, causing all kinds of outrageous behaviour and scenarios. The town offers a rogue's gallery of characters including Michael Berryman, Alfred Molina, Jack Noseworthy, Peter Macnicol, John Getz, Michael Massee and others, all of whom don't really do much other than show up, act weird for a bit and then wander off again. I like this type of film though, purposeless other than to languish about with characters who don't want much, their arcs sputtering in a flatline of small town doldrums and behaviour that only makes sense to them. It's not for everyone, which is why no one really gives credit to this stuff, but it's enjoyable once in a while, when you're in as strange a mood as the residents of this one horse sideshow of a town.

it came along a Greek newspaper (as a gift) and obviously the selection wasn't random! the newspaper must have bought the dvds for free! there is no plot, the acting is dreadful (i think most of the time the actors were acting on their own in order to fill the 80' minutes because there was no script). i kept watching it just to see if it can get any worse! overall super low budget no-script romantic(?) drama (?) movie, only the writer and the director can explain what they tried to make...anyway, the story was about an old unmarried guy wandering around the town and looking hungry for women. then he saw the young angelina jolie and became even more hungry. then he saw angelina's old mother and compromised with the mother (who was living in a caravan and had an insane boyfriend and she was searching for some guy to replace the insane boyfriend, so she picked the unmarried old hungry for women wanderer who's saliva was dribbling for her daughter). that's it. he replaced the insane boyfriend and moved to the caravan. the end...

This is not at all the sort of film I am usually attracted to. The only other film in my experience that I could compare it to would be Tarentino's "Pulp Fiction". It's not as slick, but there is less blood... It was only on the second viewing that I was able to start to appreciate it and not until the shootout at the petrol station that I saw that the film is in fact a comedy on the black side. I think this should have been made apparent earlier in the film to give it a more uniform identity. The desert atmosphere is always attractive and explains the film's rather surrealistic feel.For me the film is original and entertaining and the performances are excellent.

The movie is strange but you come to like it. It has a Lynch atmosphere and it alternates between comedy and thriller (reminded me of Wild At Heart sometimes). This is the first film Angelina Jolie film I've seen. She's gorgeous! If I were Aiello I would definitely fall for her. Michael Biehn is extremely cool!