Another offbeat exploration of possibilities (7.5/10)

Written by Mike Cahill
Directed by Mike Cahill

Michael Douglas … Charlie
Evan Rachel Wood … Miranda
Willis Burks II … Pepper

Charlie: “We used to be surrounded by nothing,”

Miranda: “We still are, but now nothing has a population,” then to herself,  “I know how he feels… every time I pass the yuppie restaurants on the stretch of Clark Street formerly dominated by the Last Stop Before Expressway Liquor Store.”

I’m not exactly sure about this quote, but it’s a close approximation of Miranda’s (Evan Rachel Wood) sense of life, or at least the bleak sense of her surroundings and her chances in them.  Back in childhood, father Charlie (Michael Douglas) was the quintessence of a free spirit, living the life of a musician on the road… and someone who consistently thought outside the box.  As evidence: in one of Miranda’s kindergarten projects Charlie helps with assembly of a true-to-scale local Spanish mission of the 1600s, complete with native Americans lying dead in the mission square from syphilis and from routine killing rituals of the Church of Rome in the Spanish colonies. [Sorry, bad image for Easter Weekend] Continue reading →