Girl from Nowhere

A couple from Cape Town traveling to their desert getaway (Scot Cooper & Tamryn Speirs) picks up a beautiful girl curiously hitchhiking the remote highway (Christia Visser). They invite her to their hideaway, but might regret it.

"Girl from Nowhere" (2017) is an Indie psychological drama from South Africa costing $203,000 (converted). Aside from the mental dramatics, it proficiently focuses on the beauty of the South African desert wilderness and that of Liza (Christia Visser) mixed with quality eclectic folk/rock reminiscent of stuff by the likes of Orenda Fink and Ane Brun.

It explores the same theme addressed in "Afternoon Delight" (2013), the spellbinding power of a beautiful woman who might be a devil within. Liza has a body sculptured by God himself, and this is a highlight of the flick, but her attitude is a big red flag, not to mention a turn-off.

The acting isn't great, but it's serviceable for a low-budget Indy. The positives noted above made me appreciate the flick, but the last act is too freestyled, like director/writer Mark Jackson & the cast made a lot of it up as they were shooting. Nonetheless, the ending makes a powerful point that's true to reality.

The film runs 1 hour, 25 minutes, and was shot in Cederberg, Western Cape, South Africa, about 2 hours' drive north of Cape Town.

GRADE: B-/C+

If you're okay with a flick that is "fairly good" and "almost works" then you might give this one a shot. It's a simple set-up, super low budget with only three actors in one setting (and some driving scenes) and for the first two thirds is where it qualifies as "fairly good". With only three actors it's a shame when one of them struggles more than the others, but one of them is pretty good so it balances out. The location is visually striking although the director doesn't really take advantage of it, and it held my interest for the most part. The weak link was definitely the screenplay. The characters aren't consistent (which only makes sense for one of them) and the dialogue is spare and rather bland. There's not enough being said or done to make a truly gripping psychological thriller, it more or less just plods along. But I kept watching, waiting to see where it would go, but unfortunately it completely falls apart at the end. Basically the script doesn't really do anything with it's set-up and then everybody starts behaving stupidly just so there can be an actual climax. For two thirds of this short little flick it couldn't commit to being a mystery, or a character piece, and then in the last ten minutes tries to be all of the above, plus maybe a thriller, maybe a crime flick, maybe a supernatural thingy, maybe a symbolic representation on the impossibility of truthful relationships. It was a 6.5/10 until the climax then I have to drop it down to a 4. But you might be more tolerant.

The story, pacing... everything except the cinematography is terrible. Nothing ever happens but the filming location is nice. So bad.

I had a good time, it hink i can overlook to the flaws for a once.

Looks like a movie school project and the most interesting part of this are the landscapes. There is a lack of production values here that could make any adult entertaining crew to blush.

Not a single shade of resemblance of a story here.

The cameraman seems more interested in chase those good looking girls taking shots at their legs and arse at any single chance but there isn't more here to see (like a failed attempt to do an actual piece of adult entertaining).

A lot of padding secuences, this could have been a 20 minutes short easily.

There are some TikTok and Youtube videos better than this that take only some minutes.

So many people gave this vanity project more than 5 of 10 stars, some even dare to say this deserve a ten and I don't know if it's because some kind of trolling, prank, or whoever made it asked his friends and family to do it.

But, hey, these actresses are very good looking.