Don’t Come Knocking
I loved this new film by Wim Wenders. It stars Sam Shepard and Jessica Lange, who previously were in four films together (Frances, Country, Crimes of the Heart, and Far North — all in the 1980s). Shepard plays an over-the-hill Hollywood actor, who disappears from the set of a western he’s filming in the Utah desert, setting out on an odyssey to chase (and perhaps confront) his past. I didn’t think the film would be much of a comedy but in the end it is very funny as well as touching. Tim Roth is hilarious as the prim agent of the company that issued the completion bond on the western, who is assigned to track the Shepard character. Rounding out the cast of brilliant performers are Eva Marie Saint, Gabriel Mann, and Sarah Polley.

Much of the film takes place in Butte, Montana, which was recently featured on The Daily Show for its pool of toxic liquid waste being marketed as a tourist attraction. I did catch a brief shot of it in Don’t Come Knocking.