Review of Scenic Route (2013) by Erich — 29 Jan 2019

I agree with the User reviewer "idbell" who wonders whether the Critics saw the same movie. I rarely rank a movie a 9 (and almost never a 10, for that is reserved for a one-in-a million work of art).

To me, a 7 or an 8 can denote an excellent film that I find quite entertaining. I reserve 9 stars for rare exceptional films -- like "Scenic Route". This film is phenomenal. The writing is intense, amazingly copious -- a nearly steady stream of perfectly realistic exchanges between two old friends as they become increasingly tested almost beyond their endurance out in the California wasteland of desert where their truck has become stranded.

Of course, no matter how good a script is, it won't work without good acting and directing -- which this movie obviously has in spades: Josh Duhamel and Dan Fogler are superb, and there is never even a hint of a false note in their performances.

This is simply the kind of movie nobody is going to dislike (at least that's what I thought, before I saw the Critics on the left panel here...). Not only is it engrossing and often thrilling, it has moments that touch the heart with a common human pain.

And on that note, it achieves what few American films do: it reaches the height of true, and classical Tragedy.