Gerry

Gus Van Sant
2002

With the thinnest of plots Gus Van Sant shows commercial narrative cinema how much he gives a fuck and gives us what is essentially a movie about filming barren landscapes. Two pals stray from the beaten hiking path to find themselves completely lost in harsh country, no food, no water. The existentialist setup would be corny were it not for Van Sant's blase treatment of the material. The situation deteriorates slowly with the possibility of a freeway or human settlement always just beyond the horizon. The fratty guys (Matt Damon and Casey Affleck) never resort to dramatic theatrics or portents of doom, pointing fingers and crying for mamma won't help them out of the desert. The photography illuminates a vast world of gravel and crags, hardscrabble bushes and vast vistas which Damon and Affleck traverse with mighty strides or ant-like inching depending on vantage point. Most impressive from a technical standpoint are the extended tracking shots in which a slow shuffling of subject and focus maintains aesthetic dynamism. The minimal dialogue and explicit drama is generally tactful and necessary, though it doesn't quite hold a candle to the multi-millenia's worth of geological drama that shares the frame.