Delayed Reaction: Mojave

The Pitch: A man meets Oscar Isaac in the desert, and unlike it real life, it's not the greatest day of that man's life. In fact, quite the opposite.

I like little coincidences in my movie binging. They are all over the place when dealing with such a large sample size. On the same night, I accidentally watched writer/director Williams Monahan's two most recent films - The Gambler and Mojave. I didn't know that until researching both after the fact. Other than Mark Wahlberg being in both films, I wouldn't've guessed that they came from the same filmmaker either. And maybe I should've. After all, I didn't care for either movie. Where the appeal of The Gambler for me was almost all Brie Larson based, it's a lot more diverse in Mojave. Oscar Isaac, Walton Goggins, Mark Wahlberg, Garrett Hedlund, and even Dania Ramirez and Sterling K. Brown make for an interesting cast. It's mostly Oscar Isaac I watched this for though. I owe him that much after Inside LlewynDavis, Ex Machina, The Force Awakens, and Show Me a Hero in the last couple years. I appreciate how much fun Isaac is having with the role in Mojave. Between Inside Llewyn Davis and Mojave, I think I'm on board with any movie that pairs him with an animal for an extended period of time*. However, 90% of his performance in this film was him saying "brother" and channeling Jeff Bridges from all of his roles since True Grit.

*I will say, I didn't appreciate the fake out when it made me think he was going to kill the dog. Don't even joke about that.

Mostly, I was bored by the movie and I don't know how much of that to put on Garrett Hedlund. I've seen Hedlund in a lot of movies. Like, more than half of his movies. I've very familiar with him as a performer...except I'm not. I still think of him as "Not Chad Michael Murray" or "Not Charlie Hunnam". I have trouble remembering his performances. I don't think he's bad. I simply don't retain knowledge of him. It's weird.

It's funny that I mention The Gambler, because the lead in both movies are cut from the same cloth. I didn't connect with the Hedlund character, so I never cared about the stakes of the film. The movie wasn't exactly bad. Just forgettable.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend.