With this film, Monte Hellman makes a long-awaited and
extremely welcome return to directing for the first time in over 20 years. He was among a group of American filmmakers
who made a string of great films in the 70s but then found it almost impossible
to survive in the radically changed movie world of the 1980s; (people like Hal
Ashby, Richard Rush and Jack Hill are just a few others who come to mind). Hellman’s Two-Lane
Blacktop (1971) and Cockfighter (1974),
especially, provide as accurate a snapshot of life in the 70s as any other
films. Road to Nowhere is devoid of anything that will make it popular
with audiences or mainstream critics, and that is precisely why it is so
needed. It reveals Hellman unrepentant
and confident as ever that his only obligation as a filmmaker is to create things
that please him. It tells of an independent
movie being made about a political scandal that resulted in the suicides of a
bigwig and his lover. A few connected with
the production are confident that these deaths were faked, however, and, in
fact, that the actress (Shannyn Sossamon) playing the girlfriend is the
real girlfriend. Shades of everything
from Vertigo to The Stunt Man threaten to hold sway in terms of an explanation, but
ultimately none apply because the story remains fixated on the director (Tygh
Runyan) character’s mounting obsession with his lead actress. It’s pointless to walk away from a film like
this feeling frustrated about plot-points; it shows everything it needs to,
which are disconnected people struggling to find their identities, relate to
each other, and reconcile their dreams and hopes with reality.
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