Prince Avalanche

I enjoyed seeing Prince Avalanche at SXSW Film Festival. It is a peculiar and deceptively simple story of two highway workers in an isolated area painting the line down the middle of a new highway. The setting becomes a character as this low-budget movie was filmed in Bastrop, Texas last summer in the aftermath of the recent fires. Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch are really magnificent. Rudd is actually difficult to recognize and comes off so different than he often does in his straight comedy roles. This is a dialogue-driven film that in some ways seems a bit like a stage play. The dialogue and the relationship between the two leads drives the entire film. The film nicely merges the comedic nature of both of the ridiculous characters with the serious nature of the issues that they are dealing with in their personal lives. The film is far lighter than Rudd's recent turn in deathly dark Killer Joe, but somewhat more serious than Rudd's big budget film This is 40. While this sort of small-budget film is unlikely to get widespread distribution it really showcases the talents of both of these actors and the importance of good writing and a beautiful setting.