I saw this movie on the Sundance Channel. And I think it is a work of rigorous simplicity and economy, it is assured and mature, especially for a first film. Clearly the filmmaker has not only looked at the world around him but deep inside himself. This is to suggest that this is the kind of film made by someone prepared to strive for self-knowledge. Jordan is the likeable pleasant-looking son of a famous producer. Clyde is his darkly handsome pal, a corrosive nihilist who insists he believes in nothing. There's a recklessness and an immorality about Clyde that attracts the uncertain Jordan, who is a nice guy who has some vague notion of trying to find some direction in his life. As we're wondering how Clyde is going to impact Jordan's life, the two are riding in the hills of Laurel Canyon when Jordan's slows down, curious about a cluster of police cars. Disregarding Clyde's advice, Jordan gets hilmself interviewed by a TV reporter. And their lives are changed by this event. The film has an easy elegance and a swift pace even though the acting is directed much llike a John Cassavetes film, going for a spontaneous, improvised quality. The score enhances the moods perfectly and there arre two sharp and sadly funny scenes between Jordan and his producer father Sid, in which the father is crude but not uncaring, but completely unable to listen to his troubled son. In the end, a long, sustained climax scene reveals the terrible torment beneath the cool void that Clyde affects.
