Prince Avalanche

If Emile Hirsch and Paul Rudd get stuck in the woods, does it make for a good movie?

This is the question Prince Avalanche asks of us, and the answer is a resounding yes. The film is a low-budget bromance that focuses on the relationship of two road workers revamping Texas roads after a forest fire wipes them out.

Spending weeks at a time isolated from society, our two protagonists get to know each other very well, and talk about everything and anything together – but mostly women. Alvin, (Paul Rudd) is dating Lance's (Emile Hirsch) older sister Madison, while Lance is constantly looking forward to the day when he can leave the forest and head back into the city where all the girls are.

The pair of actors are wonderful together, and it's their comical and engaging interactions that provide the framework for this movie. Director David Gordon Greene (The Sitter, Pineapple Express) is no stranger to comedy, and there are some brilliantly funny moments in Prince Avalanche, but the humor never takes full focus. There are long, meditative shots of nature mixed in with some great dramatic events that make this film a more reflective piece than a funny one.

Unfortunately, there is a bit of empty space, and some scenes drag on longer than they should. There is also this sub-plot involving an older alcoholic character that never really goes anywhere. Despite it's flaws, the highs and lows in Alvin and Lance's relationship make for a charming and inspirational story. Prince Avalanche is whole-heartedly an entertaining film that finds that rare sweet spot between the heart and funny bone.

"Prince Avalanche" is a great cinema experience for just about everyone. It begins as the ultimate road movie (literally, a pair of mismatched Texans spend their summer painting roads) but quickly takes a detour into a world of visual poetry, provocative characterizations and deep introspection. And all the while it manages to maintain a sense of brainless comedy that the storyline & DVD cover might lead us to expect.

In spite of its grand visual setting in the majesty & desolation of fire-ravaged Texas, this is a very minimalistic production with just 2 main characters, 2 supporting characters and 10 or 20 miles of desolate Texas roads in the aftermath of the 1987 wildfires (it was actually filmed at the site of the 2012 Batstrop County fire). Being set in the 80s adds to the comedy & charm of this quirky flick. Be prepared to see Paul Rudd sporting a very "Magmum P.I." moustache and white tube socks with those 3 funky colored stripes at the top.

There aren't a lot of big gags but instead the humor comes from the low-key bizarre dialogues between our 2 leads, "Alvin" (Paul Rudd) who is the self appointed leader because he's the self-proclaimed smarter of the two, and "Lance" (Emile Hirsch) who isn't the brightest doorknob. The laughs hinge on the weirdness of their discussions much like the hilariously strange banter between John Travolta & Samuel L. Jackson in "Pulp Fiction".

In all, "Prince Avalanche" is an excellent show of what the French philosophers might call "La Comedy Humaine" with its poignant look at human nature. And at the same time the movie isn't so heady that it's above an occasional brainless laugh, like having the two fight & chase each other through the forest with axes.

I wanted to mention 2 trivial tidbits in case you're interested in stuff like this: (1) The filmmakers note that no animals were harmed, so the occasional scenes of roadkill, fishing and what looked like a small skinned monkey for dinner were apparently props (this is good to know as a lot of indie films slip under the AHA radar and use real animals to save money on special effects), and (2) the excellent performance by supporting actress Joyce Payne (the woman in the ruins) was actually an unscripted addition to the film when they met Joyce, an actual ex-resident, while filming. As you will see, her character becomes pivotal to the story & meaning of the film, reminding us that great moments in cinema do often happen by accident.

"Prince Avalanche" is rated R which surprised me since there is no nudity, not much profanity and no violence. There are 1 or 2 dialogues about sexual situations which might get a bit racy for the kiddies, but other than that, this is a tame film. I highly recommend it to fans of Jim Jarmusch ("Down By Law", "Coffee & Cigarettes") and Wim Wenders ("Million Dollar Hotel", "Lisbon Story", "Alice in the Cities").

The original film, "Á annan veg," was a nice surprise when I discovered and watched it during a red-eye flight with IcelandAir. I had never heard of it before, so even in Iceland, it's quite obscure, so I found it a little weird that it was being remade in Hollywood.

This remake is in most parts a carbon-copy of the original with the Icelandic dialog translated into English, but that's not really a bad thing. It's interesting to see the story in a different, but eerily the exact same, place.

There are really only three characters in the whole movie: the adult man, the young man and the truck driver. I prefer Paul Rudd to most actors any day of the week, so he wins, and Emile Hirsch was fine as the young man; however, I kinda liked the truck driver better in the original version, because there, he had this strange "I surely am a sex offender" vibe, which is lacking here. It just gave him a little more personality.

All in all, a good watch. Simple story, but interesting and slightly better than the original because of the Rudd-factor.

If two dudes quarrel in the woods ... do they make a sound? Director David Gordon Green has graciously stepped back from making underachieving R-rated comedies to give us what could end up amounting to an underachieving R-rated comedy, but in truth offers a good deal more.

Based on a story by Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurosson, "Prince Avalanche" follows two men doing road repair work in the wildfire-ravaged Texas wilderness in the summer of 1988. Alvin (Paul Rudd) has hired his girlfriend's brother, Lance (Emile Hirsch) to work alongside him hammering in reflector posts and painting traffic lines. The two are archetypal opposites: Alvin the focused, organized and wiser character and Lance the immature, unskilled free- wheeler. Their naturally tenuous relationship goes through ups and downs and unsurprisingly, the two find common ground in their opposite approaches and perspectives.

The David Gordon Green who directs this film recalls the one who made "All the Real Girls" and "Snow Angels," not the one appeared to steal his name and made "Pineapple Express," "Your Highness" and "The Sitter." One could argue it's a middle ground offering between Green's two extremes because of the film's comic angle, but the pace and style has more Terrence Malick influence than anything else and the humor isn't written in so much as it emerges organically from the back-and-forth of the performances.

With a combination of nature establishing shots, the camera zooming down a road and a stirring soundtrack from Austin-based post-rockers Explosions in the Sky (a nice local touch), "Avalanche" exudes indie-ness. It's quirky, comically exaggerated, poignantly human and Green tells it in a logical but atypical narrative structure. The film is a voice-over narrator away from being so independent it wouldn't be independent anymore.

Half of "Prince Avalanche" focuses on setting a reflective tone through visuals, while the other half examines these characters through their dialogue with one another. Much of the script consists of conversations that simultaneously reveal their utter simplicity as well as their true humanity. The story ultimately mediates on notions of loneliness and our need for companionship in both platonic and non-platonic forms.

Rudd and Hirsch make all the comedy click, though Green has a way of framing certain shots that bring out the humor in seemingly ordinary situations. Both actors are on top of their game -- few can strike a balance between comedy and honesty like Rudd and "Avalanche" is an ideal showcase for that talent. Hirsch, meanwhile, continues to offer up evidence why he's grossly underrated.

"Prince Avalanche" tries to find that sweet spot between comedy and relationship drama, and though it strikes a few resonant chords emotionally speaking, it's not nearly as fulfilling or powerful as Green's poetic imagery suggests that it desires to be. It has a bit too much fun reveling in its weirdness and goofy, innocent man-child characters, but on the flip side, how many films with goofy, innocent man-child characters even manage to achieve this level of thoughtfulness?

~Steven C

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All hope was lost for David Gordon Green. After a string of cult-ready indie flicks, he sold out in the best possible way and made the hilarious Pineapple Express. I hoped it was a one off, or at least, that he would remain good at comedy. But the disappointing Your Highness and the 'I- can't-even-bear-to-look-at-its-IMDb-page' The Sitter don't look too promising for his future. Now with Prince Avalanche, it seems like he's taken a good look at himself and realized what he does best. Small scale dramas concerning the human condition, especially regarding romantic relationships. I always love good films about little-thought of jobs and the guys who do the line painting of the roads in the middle of nowhere is a fascinating one. Prince Avalanche is a dual character study of an introvert and an extrovert but goes beyond the 'odd couple' clichés. Together, they cover enough ground to find relatable areas, and with dialogue-driven scenes, it cuts to the core of what they live for and how that drive changes and grows throughout the course of the film.

Paul Rudd is absolutely outstanding here. I'm so glad he's finally found a role to test his dramatic talent without having to ignore his brand of comedy, though much of the humour of this film is incidental and sparse. He's incredibly subtle and commanding. Unfortunately, Emile Hirsch looks amateur next to Rudd and he rarely feels as sincere. Sometimes the little conflicts between them suffer because of it which make the film feel slower than it is, but they still drive the character development in an interesting way. Rudd aside, the highlight of the film is the great cinematography. Sometimes the cutaways and montages are more emotionally engaging than the words as they think of all the symbols possible in this environment with these characters. It's a film that conjures a mood more than anything and it reassures me that David Gordon Green never left, he was just taking a break. I regret that I've more or less forgotten what happens in his first four films but Avalanche makes me want to revisit them soon. It's a beautiful simple film which ends on a lovely hopeful note. A true catharsis from the social order of life and utterly refreshing to watch.

8/10