Gold Dust (Review)
Gold Dust Comes Close to Striking Gold.
Gold Dust is a film founded on a fanciful fairytale-esque plot chock-full of eccentric characters. Movies like this are right up my alley and at first glance, I can see a hint of Neil Gaiman’s influence in the storytelling. However, while it has a solid setup and some pretty quirky performances, Gold Dust seems to have a hard time figuring out how to best use the great ideas that writer/director (and star) David Wall came up with. The pieces are all there, and things get off to a great start, but the follow-through just isn’t enough. That being said, I love the potential that this film shows in Wall and I imagine that he could go far with just a little bit of guidance and practice.
It’s hard to know just where to start with Gold Dust. There are a lot of moving pieces in this film and trying to break it down would sound insane. Basically, it’s about a pair of treasure hunters (Wall and David Wysock) who are scouring the desert in search of a long lost treasure. What they find instead is a bag of cash and a dead body in the middle of nowhere. Of course, they snatch the cash and take off, only to discover that it belongs to a drug lord known as El Guapo (Garrett Marchbank) and he’s sent his classical music-obsessed hitman (Derek Severson) out into the desert to get it back. To make matters worse, they run across a kid that needs their help to escape El Guapo. Things get complicated fast and soon everyone is set on an inevitable collision course.
When it comes to indie films, it can be hard to hide how low your budget is at times. I’ve been known to grimace at harsh footage from lower-end digital cameras, especially with the way they tend to be overly sensitive to lighting. I never hold that against the filmmakers though (I was a young know-nothing in film school once upon a time). However, when it comes to the biggest flaws in Gold Dust, they’re mostly technical. The cinematography is a bit shaky and simplistic at times. This is most noticeable during scenes where two characters are talking. I wouldn’t say that it’s “bad” but it’s a little too basic to remain interesting. The only reason that this is really noticeable is because there are a few moments where Gold Dust uses the camera to really set up the characters without any of them having to say a word. Other than that, there are a few sound issues that are a bit jarring.
What I loved about Gold Dust is how clever it is. There is some hilarious dialogue between Wall and Wysock, especially one Lord of the Rings running joke. Wall seems to give off a Robert Redford vibe for a lot of the movie as well, which made me instantly like his character even during his more despicable moments. Not all the actors in the film are as skilled when it comes to their chemistry, but the characters who really matter to the storyline do a great job of being just “over the top” enough to be memorable. Even the lesser characters are set up well enough to feel like a cohesive part of the goofy universe that Gold Dust is set in. Sure, there are a few members of the cast that don’t have a lot of experience when it comes to acting and that’s clear in a couple of scenes, but it’s never enough to undermine the movie.
Technical issues aside, Gold Dust has a bit of a third act issue. It manages to develop a pretty solid style for the first half of the movie as the characters wander the desert lost and confused. When it’s just them left to their bickering and quirks, I found myself captivated with how well those moments were scripted. That;s probably because it invests in the same kind of fanciful tone that I saw in Tigers Are Not Afraid. The third act changes the formula and I found it to be a bit too on the nose. With the appearance of civilization, the whimsical undertones deteriorated and never quite recovered in time for the ending. It wasn’t enough for Gold Dust to become distasteful, but I wish it had realized its strengths earlier and stuck to them.
More than anything Gold Dust is bursting with potential. It doesn’t quite live up to all the promise that it shows, but I still enjoyed watching it. All the issues that it has are things that can be taught or learned, but creativity is something that you either have or don’t and David Wall’s got it. With a bit of polish and a little more focus, he could be quite the storyteller. As far as Gold Dust goes, it’s got it’s fair share of issues, but I think it’s still a movie that deserves to be seen. It’s a fun movie and has quite a collection of characters that pop up throughout it. All things considered, Gold Dust is a charming little movie that stumbles a bit from time to time, but I still enjoyed it quite a bit.
