Anchorage

Brothers Jacob (Scott Monahan, director) and John (Dakota Loesch, writer) are on a drug and booze addled road trip through California with a boot full of teddy bears full of opioids.

With this they are hoping to make their fortune, live and become part of the American dream. A dream, that as they drive through the seemingly endless desert wastes of the California desert, appears destitute and rancid.

The dirt caked ghost towns with swimming pools suggest there was once money there or the prospect of making money. It’s not clear if these were abandoned by owners or left half built be broke developers. In any case they provide the brothers the opportunities to wax lyrical about the economic benefit of selling in Anchorage rather than LA, or other ambitions along with more sombre statements.

It’s a relationship that’s based on love though rough around the edges. John a gross individual in saggy red long-johns who bites his toenails much to the disgust of the driving Jake (and I’m going to assume) everyone else watching). Yet capable of great eloquence the economic reasoning for offing their drugs in Anchorage totally destroying Jacob’s idea of LA.

Jake ostensibly the more sensible one has the kinder façade though happily uses a baseball bat on a pair who are trying to rob John, who had taken the car and left Jake in an empty house after a night of booze and drugs.

There is an element of repetition here but three points in the film (no spoilers) shift the tone and dynamic of the characters and their relationship. Also the performances are outstanding with nary a wasted action or word with Monahan and Loesch keeping up a remarkable level of intensity and eloquence.

There’s little background other than they were deeply affected by the death of their mother, there’s also a sense of self-pity that they too should be entitled to the spoils of the American dream (by hook or crook) that has passed them by.

Make no mistake these aren’t nice people and any traces of roguish charm are soon dashed, it’s the intensity and sincerity of the performances that should keep the viewer captivated to the end.

Anchorage is in UK cinemas for a limited time and then on digital from 11 September 2023.