I thought this was absolutely awesome. Riveting, funny, gorgeously shot and unbelievably tense. It's a total blast. Oscar Isaac is the main reason to see here - he delivers a fantastic, scenery-chewing performance as the villain and proves again he's one of the best out there today. Garrett Hedlund is also great and the scenes between the two are where the movie shines most. Mark Wahlberg and Walton Goggins also have fun supporting turns. Highly enjoyed this. A-

A24 just bought domestic rights

http://www.thewrap.com/oscar-isaac-garr ... exclusive/

I'd like to see this, looks very good. But I can't find any news about it getting a proper release.

A dull and self-indulgent dud. Mojave is the type of film destined to confound and infuriate viewers because its on-the-box concept is so accessible—a devil-may-care L.A. hotshot (Garrett Hedlund) becomes lost in the desert and is set upon by a serial murderer (Oscar Isaac), who pursues him from the sand to the city—but the execution is so impenetrable and grandiloquent, more existential-lite treatise by way of cologne advertisement than an involving story of conflict and suspense. The film is directed by William Monahan, known best for his Oscar-winning screenplay for The Departed, and most of the lengthy scenes consist of the two stars reciting his flashy-yet-vacant samurai-poet dialogue at one another. "I don't even know if you exist as I understand existence." "Do you believe in the duality of man?" Most lines begin or end with the word "brother," said in the spiritual-fellow-traveler sense. It verges on self-parody. The film also has a habit of excusing its own pretense: for example, the Isaac character criticizes Herman Melville for assigning Captain Ahab a physical representation of his wrathful motive (a lost leg), saying he prefers malignity without reason, thus justifying his own undefined bohemian sadism. And other peripheral characters reference their hatred of executives and producers' screenplay notes, as if the film is imagining how such squares would respond to its own too-cool-for-school posturing. The only modestly redeeming factor is rapaciously campy performance by Isaac, particularly fun early on as he imitates how Apocalypse Now-era Dennis Hopper might play the devil in a Western. Poor Hedlund, on the other hand, is almost too well-cast as a disheveled-chic golden god whose designer shades are more compelling than his personality or worldview.

D

Mojave

This was a strange film. The story is sort of good, but it isn't executed as well as it should have been. I can't put my finger on why I didn't love this movie as much as I should have. Garrett Hedlund gives an odd and needlessly intense performance. Oscar Isaac isn't great here either, but he's a darn sight better than Hedlund, who was just totally miscast.

Having Mark Wahlberg in the film (as well as Walt Goggins) was very odd. His character (and just the fact that it's Marky Mark) didn't fit so well in the revenge thriller construct. They should have made a straight-up thriller. Most of the dialogue goes in one ear and out the other. The editing is odd at times. The score is non-existent. But...I did somewhat enjoy the film, if just to see the ending. It is rather slow, and when things do happen it's not particularly exciting.

C-

The pseudointellectual peyote-existential vibe completely ruins what could be a lean, muscular suspense story.

Yes. It is trying to be too artistic or too intelligent for its own good. Another film which falls victim to this is The Gambler, coincidentally also starring Wahlberg. Directors often seem afraid to just make simple concepts into films, instead choosing to lace them with inane dialogue in an attempt to appear less mainstream than it is.

And Walt Goggins was strange in this. I got the sense that he was trying to do a Jack Nicholson impression. And he is starting to get on my nerves how he thinks he is a highbrow actor now. I much prefer him in his Shanghai Noon "reach for the skies" days.

William Monahan has not had any success since his Oscar win for The Departed. No one saw London Boulevard or Mojave, and Body of Lies and The Gambler performed fairly tepidly for Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Wahlberg vehicles.

Haha! I didn't even know that Monahan worked on The Gambler. Oh, man, so he is the clearly the problem. One to mark as "avoid" from now on, I think. Though he did write the early screenplays for Oblivion and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, which, against popular opinion, I love. But I will comfort myself in the fact that the finished articles, in both cases, were hopefully not too influenced by Monahan, and even perhaps he was fired because of his lack of talent.

Do you enjoy The Departed?

Of course, I do. But the story is stolen from Infernal Affairs (and I prefer that as a film, too), so Monahan cannot be responsible for that! And I mostly enjoy it probably because of Scorsese's direction.