Most people have experienced that sense of hopelessness to some degree, feeling like there is no way out of a situation. Add desperation and a desolate and lonely desert setting, and you have the basic ingredients for Catching Dust. This film embraces atmosphere and mood like a long-lost lover, making the audience squirm and feel uncomfortable as they watch the drama unfold. For the most part, it works, giving us a slow burn that ramps the tension up, even if, at times, it is an agonizing crawl with a strange final act.
Set up in the Texas desert is a lonely mobile home where a not-so-happy couple resides. Geena (Erin Moriarty) and her husband Clyde (Jai Courtney) live off the grid, and through conversations, we learn they are running from something. Geena is an artist, frustrated with her surroundings and her husband Clyde’s evasive nature about when they will move back to town. The tension between the two hangs in the air and only grows. Clyde is paranoid and controlling, not wanting Geena to even go to town and effectively making their home a prison.
Clyde’s paranoia reaches an all-time high when a couple rolls in to take up residence nearby. Andy (Ryan Corr) and Amaya (Dina Shihabi) are from New York, trying to get a fresh start and reset their lives after suffering a horrific loss that has left them in shock. Writer-director Stuart Gatt sets the stage for an already uncomfortable situation to worsen, with results that no one involved saw coming, changing everyone’s lives forever.Â
To say Catching Dust burns slowly is a vast understatement. Clocking in at around ninety minutes, the film challenges the audience to become invested in these four characters and the atmosphere of tension they inhabit. Gatt gives us some wonderful claustrophobic moments in the two homes, mainly that of Geena and Clyde, which is quite an accomplishment, seeing as they all live in the desert. Moriarty shines as Geena, creating a believable character who is suffocated by her surroundings. While Courtney is quickly painted as a villain of sorts here, he gives a strangely haunting performance as Clyde, making the mysterious part of his life he holds close interesting to watch.Â
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It’s a hard act for Corr and Shihabi to follow. While their characters never ring as genuine or believable, even with their personal tragedy, they add some extra tension to an already tense situation. Andy and Geena’s found connection is a bit too on the nose and seems too easy in a film that, to this point, has been anything but. With such a short run time, Gatt was understandably stuck on how to develop the characters to the fullest. The minimal approach worked fine, but the dialogue and situations sometimes rang a bit hollow.
While interesting in its twist, the final act of the film also felt strange and out of place at times. Until this point, things had moved slowly, building up ridiculous tension and making even the simplest day-to-day tasks seem hard. However, the march to the end went at a pace that felt slightly out of balance with the rest of the film. There is a case to be made that this is the point, to see a light at the end of the tunnel and run towards it, jettisoning all the built-up frustrations along the way. Still, some parts seemed a bit lost, even with the film wrapping up in a way more fitting to how we began.
Beautifully shot and full of wonderful tension and despair, Catching Dust succeeds despite some hiccups along the way. The story was uncomfortable to watch, and the actors did a great job conveying how it feels to have little control of your life. They showed the frustration it brings and the desperation that can push you to do almost anything to escape.
Catching Dust will be released in select theaters and on VOD on August 23rd via Vertical.
