Movie Review: A DESERT

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: May 2nd, 2025 / 01:01 AM

A DESERT movie poster | ©2025 Dark Sky Films

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: David Yow, Kai Lennox, Sarah Lind, Zachary Ray Sherman, Ashley B. Smith, Rob Zabrecky, S.A. Griffin
Writers: Joshua Erkman & Bossi Baker
Director: Josh Erkman
Distributor: Dark Sky Films
Release Date: May 2, 2025

A DESERT is a slow-burn, sun-drenched film noir. We start out following photographer Alex Clark (Kai Lennox) as he travels through California’s Yucca Valley, taking pictures of abandoned housing projects, derelict buildings, and even freight trains with skeletal cars.

On a phone call to his wife Sam (Sarah Lind) from a rundown motel, Alex says the work isn’t depressing him – on the contrary, he feels like he did when he was first starting out, with a great sense of freedom.

We eventually learn that Alex was famous twenty years ago for a book of photographs entitled DEATH OF THE NEW WEST.

Alex hears what sounds like a couple fighting in the next room and calls the motel manager. Things quiet down and then the man from next door, Renny (Zachary Ray Sherman), shows up to apologize to Alex for the disturbance, bringing his “sister” Susie Q (Ashley B. Smith) and a bottle of liquor.

Renny is so clearly untrustworthy at first glance that we’re not sure what to make of Alex’s failure to immediately slam the door in his face. Are we meant to think Alex has bad judgment, a need for danger, that he’s less interested in his work than he professes? Or are we meant to think Alex’s eventual acquiescence is normal?

At approximately the forty-three-minute mark, A DESERT takes a sharp turn. We spend more time with Sam and meet a new character, world-weary Harold Palladino (David Yow).

Director Josh Erkman, who co-wrote the script with Bossi Baker, is very visually oriented, presenting images and landscapes in a variety of formats. While it gives us multiple views of places and spaces, it doesn’t wind up adding psychological depth to the proceedings.

We twice hear Alex’s line about how he tends to focus on surroundings rather than on people. It’s possible that A DESERT may be a commentary on what happens to those who aren’t attuned to individuals.

On the other hand, A DESERT itself doesn’t give us much insight into its characters. Renny is so extreme that we wait in vain for some explanation of his behavior. Although we spend a lot of time with Sam, we never find out much about her beyond her devotion to Alex and her support of his creative vision. We get even less information about Susie Q and why she’s making her choices.

The acting is all good. Yow endows Palladino with authenticity, and Lennox plays against Alex’s potential for pretentiousness with a modest affability. Lind has conviction as Sam, Sherman is credibly creepy as Renny, and Smith has all the right moves as sex worker Susie.

A DESERT opens with the mysteries of deserted structures and the endless possibilities of the road. It also has the formal content of a classic journey into the heart of darkness. But the insistent imagery and the events of the narrative never come together to enhance each other. It’s intriguing on some levels, but ultimately frustrating.

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