“Where in the Hell” Finds Home in the Unknown
While it’s not a genre of filmmaking exclusive to the United States, there’s something about the road trip movie that’s quintessential to the American experience. Perhaps it’s this country’s overreliance on automobiles or the endless appeal of the American West. Whatever it may be, this country has a long history of movies that exist in and around a car that’s traveling down a highway to some destination. As the saying goes, it’s not usually the destination that matters, but the journey. Such is the case in Laramie Dennis’s Where in the Hell, an earnest, quirky journey that proves you might not end up where you thought you would, but that’s okay.
Courtesy of Where in the LLC
Kasey (Cam Killion) is in the middle of a road trip with her girlfriend. One morning, she wakes up early to surprise her girlfriend with pancakes from the nearby diner, but comes back to an empty motel room. No girlfriend, no dog. Kasey is now in middle-of-nowhere-California with no cell service. It’s there that she meets up with Alan (Joohun Lee), a struggling actor on his way to Vancouver for an audition. It’s not the first time their paths have crossed, as Kasey is a prop master who once worked on a set with Alan. Together, they start driving toward the things they think will make their lives better, but it’s the relationship between them that will change things.
Where in the Hell is distinctly modern in the sense that the cars are hybrid and echoes of Covid social distancing pop up throughout the film. Even so, these modern sensibilities can’t overshadow the deeply classic sensation Where in the Hell gives its viewers. While it doesn’t seem like the movie was shot on film, it certainly looks and feels as though it was, without the sort of manufactured graininess other films rely on. The colors are remarkably rich and allow the landscape of the American West to truly shine. There’s something mystical and magical that happens in the desert. It’s dreamy and dirty, a place where possibility is met with cold, hard reality. Where in the Hell uses its setting to an effective extent to show two adrift, lonely people existing together, helping one another in a lost, lonely place.
Courtesy of Where in the LLC
As with most road trip flicks, it's the relationship dynamic at the center of the film that makes or breaks it. Luckily, the banter beyween Kasey and Alan is endearing. Alan, the optimist, and Kasey, the pessimist, are bound together by the rules of a road trip. It’s funny how the open road can change a person’s perspective when they’re forced to be in a car with someone who is their opposite. The dynamic of Kasey and Alan is as funny as it is introspective. No one knows you the way a stranger does, and no one can push you like someone who has no idea what you’re capable of. Where in the Hell is an ode to fleeting relationships that burn brightly for a few days before disappearing forever.
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