The title is a lie. I found a dirt road, and it did not taste of salt. it tasted awful. Luckily, this feature debut from Raven Jackson, and has a few Independent Spirit Award nominations. As a voter, I was provided with a screener. As a blind voter, I was not provided with accessibility. As a human being, I was ignored by A24, so I hope Raven can take some solace in the fact that I did actually pay to watch a film I had a free screener too just because I’m disabled and apparently that’s a big problem for Hollywood.
the first thing to appreciate about this is the sound design. Whether it is completely and totally captured in the moment, or generated later and overlayed doesn’t matter because I felt like I was watching this outdoors. I spent my childhood in the Ozarks, and live in Florida now where the Cicadas come to attempt to murder us with sound every year, and I’m sure I should be raving about the film itself, but this sounded amazing. It just did.
The film is just sort of a life story captured in a format that is akin to something like Terence Malick’s Tree of Life, which seems to wander at times, but still pursues some truth about life. Not really your life, but a life. Where one begins, and one grows, and one presumably ends. So perhaps the dirt road I tasted was unnecessary, as it is more metaphoric in nature, and the salt is a reminder that you can’t truly ever experience anything for free. Not even this film. There’s some slat to be paid, in some form, and watching this play out reminds you of that.
For her part, Raven Jackson seems like a strong voice for the future, one who I’ll be interested to see what she does next. I also really deeply appreciated the casting of Moses Ingram, who I felt was one of the strongest, if not best, parts of Obi-Wan, and the internet just hated her so much. The internet is full of trolls, what can I say?
This audio description track from the good folk at Deluxe is necessary. I did actually try to watch my screener, but when you have a writer/director pushing forward a narrative that is atypical and almost lacks traditional plot and dialog structure, there is a lot of nuance to capture. Michelle Deco does a fine job narrating this, in an almost lilting tone, which fits perfectly with the wandering nature of the story.
Life isn’t a perfect line, it isn’t walked always straight and narrow, but it is complex, rewarding, and often full of love. Raven Jackson’s debut may not be a traditional plot driven film, but the fun is in the craft. i do prefer my films with more plot, more dialogue, but I also respect the hell out of this for a debut. I can’t wait to see what Raven Jackson does next.
Final Grade: B+