Watch The Rambler

The Rambler is a dark and twisted road movie that is borderline surreal, directed by Calvin Reeder and starring Dermot Mulroney in the lead role of a newly released felon known only as The Rambler. The film is based on Calvin's short film of the same name. The Rambler is a highly flawed character that you may love to hate, or maybe hate to love. He is a man desperately looking for redemption and a second chance at life but is unable to escape his past. At the start of the movie, The Rambler is released from prison and sets out on a journey to reach his brother's house.

The road movie format of the film fits well with the story's bizarre and eerie undertones. From the surreal opening sequence to the psychedelic weirdness of some of the characters and situations he encounters along the way, The Rambler is an unpredictable and at times downright bizarre adventure.

As The Rambler makes his way through the bizarre and perilous landscape, there is a sense of menace and unease that everything he encounters is trying to bring him under. He encounters a series of strange people and situations, from the odd Ava (Lindsay Pulsipher) who gives him a lift in her van to the Cowboy (James Cady) and the Scientist (Natasha Lyonne), who both lead him down a path that seems to be anything but safe.

The dialogue in The Rambler is sparse and often cryptic, delivering a bizarre sense of humor that fans of the surreal will appreciate. Tension is built through the movie through the composition, direction, and sound design, which create a sense of unease to be found somewhere new at each step. The atmosphere is peculiar and engrossing, and there's always something unexpected taking place.

As the road trip continues, The Rambler's hallucinations and haunting memories start to take centre stage, blurring the lines between reality and fantasy. Haunted by ghosts, he suffers through several of his mysterious past's unknown mistakes and fears, causing him to go further and deeper into a kind of dazed madness that forces him to confront the past he's been striving so hard to forget.

The Rambler is Dermot Mulroney's movie, and he absolutely dominates the screen. He portrays the character as a sharp-witted and introspective man who can be demanding and unpleasant to be near. Mulroney's deadpan delivery, coupled with his emotionally complex facial expressions, adds an added dimension to the script's subtext.

Lindsay Pulsipher is excellent as Ava, the free-spirited and wild woman who gives The Rambler a ride. She shows great emotional range, moving from flirtatious to fierce within seconds, matching Mulroney beat for beat in their duologues. Natasha Lyonne portrays the Scientist with the same kind of bizarre intensity she brought to Netflix's Orange Is The New Black and is an unsettling presence, unraveling a range of unwanted surprises at each turn.

The Rambler is a murky and hypnotic film, and not one for everybody. The film presents viewers with a world where almost anything is possible, and hallucination is indistinguishable from reality. This atmosphere of unpredictability is what drives the movie, and while the tone and pacing can be erratic at times, it's that same erratic vibe that gives the film such a bizarre, unforgettable edge.

Overall, The Rambler is an emerging gem of the indie film world that's perfect for fans of the peculiar and surreal. It's a movie not concerned with explaining itself or what is happening, and it's undoubtedly not perfect, but it's a brave and inventive movie that deserves to be discovered by a wider audience. It's a creepy and hypnotic journey, often frustratingly odd but never forgettable.

The Rambler is a 2013 drama with a runtime of 1 hour and 37 minutes. It has received mostly poor reviews from critics and viewers, who have given it an IMDb score of 4.8 and a MetaScore of 32.