DESERT SONG // A FILM REVIEW OF "TYGER, TYGER"
The set of up TYGER, TYGER is intriguing enough: it's the near-future and an unknown pandemic has overrun the world. A very expensive treatment drug is the most sought after item around, which forces people to take matters into their own hands. We open on a robbery for said drugs and with a pulsing indie soundtrack and some good looking cinematography, this seems like a solid beginning for an interesting tale. Sadly, that's not the case and this haywire of a film, written and directed by Kenny Mondragon (his first feature), is both a confusing mess and a complete bore.
The basic plot sets around a woman named Blake (Sam Quartin) who robs a pharmacy with her boyfriend (Max Madsen) and her mute friend Bobby (Nekhebet Kum Juch) to steal the much desired medication. She herself is waiting for a diagnosis and wants to take the medicine and distribute it for free to those in need. During the robbery, she ends up meeting Luke (Dylan Sprouse), a junkie who's at the pharmacy trying to scam some drugs for himself. In what can only be described as the most forced "meet-cute" possible, she ends up holding him at gunpoint, telling him to change clothes with her for some unknown reason while they make eyes at each other (even her boyfriend asks her why she does this, but gets no answer). Later, she splits with her boyfriend, who now wants to keep the drugs for himself, and alongside Bobby they head to a remote town in the desert. On the way, they look up Luke from the pharmacy and end up kidnapping him, taking him along for the ride. Because why not? Soon the merry band of three arrive in the town to... hang out. Literally. That's the rest of the film.
What starts as a pandemic thriller quickly becomes a burning man hang out film, with almost all non-professional actors (none of them making any sort of memorable impact, even the professional ones) trying to make this rambling, incoherent mess of a script make any sort of sense, which it never does. The film wants to have a chill, freewheeling kind of vibe, and it certainly seems like there's a lot of improv going on (which, in this case, is not a good thing). The dialogue (if you can call it that) that the actors are given is tedious, pretentious and makes little sense in any situation throughout the film. TYGER, TYGER has a misleadingly solid trailer with a cool indie soundtrack, but once you actually watch the film (which honestly feels like a 90-minute music video parading as a film), you realize it's one of the most puzzling misfires in recent memory.
GRADE: F
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY Kenny Mondragon STARRING Dylan Sprouse, Sam Quartin, Nekhebet Kum Juch, Thea Sofie Loch Næss, Craig Stark, Max Madsen. NOW PLAYING IN SELECT THEATRES AND IN DIGITAL CINEMAS.