Change Your Image
jiricech
Reviews
Drought (1998)
Mesmerizing -- what film can and should be
This little beauty of a film manages more in 30 minutes than 98% of films screened in theatres. I first saw Drought at the New York/Avignon Film Festival, then on the Independent Film Channel. The second time was better than the first time, and the first time I was agape. Lisa Moncure directed the short based on a book by Debra Di Blasi (of the same title) that I also read. The translation from page to screen is remarkably successful, capturing the bleak midwestern landscape scorched by drought and a man and woman scorched by a failing ranch and failing love. Visually exquisite, with subtle and emotionally compelling sound design. Jack Conley (Traffic, L.A.Confidential) brings a desperate intelligence to the role of Kale, and Jessika Cardinahl is gorgeous as a woman weighted by a past memory and the present inexorable force of nature. I'd really like to see Moncure tackle a feature to see if Drought is a wonderful accident or proof of greatness to come.