The Oyler House: Richard Neutra's Desert Retreat

As a MCM fan, I was anticipating seeing the interior of this home. There were a lot of interviews with Mr. Oyler, Richard Neutra's sons, and the current owner, but it was a huge miss not to do a walk thru of the interior of the home as it exists today. It left the viewer wondering how the architect designed such a long skinny house that was functional. All backstory and no substance - this could have been so much more than interviews.

As another reviewer noted, views of the interior house are minimal. Most of the 47 min documentary is filled with interviews with first owner (Oyler) and current owner (Kelly Lynch) and the sons of the architect and it seems to go from anecdote to anecdote. From an article online I learned the documentary maker - Mike Dorsey - is the step-grandchild of the original owner Richard Oyler, and the documentary was commissioned by the family, which explains the heavy emphasis on the Oyler family and Neutra's relationship with them.

While the back story of the creation is interesting, you sadly never get an complete idea/view of the house interior or exterior. Most interior shots shown are through home movies of the Oyler family or architectural sketches.

Also, although the relationship between Neutra and Oyler gets most of the airtime, it never seems to go too deep into it and leaves the viewer with more questions than answers.

I would've loved if the producers would have - apart from showing more of the actual house - had Richard Oyler elaborate on the building of the house. From loose sentences here and there it seems Oyler did the entire construction himself. If so, that is an awesome logistical feat considering its location and it would've been nice if they went a bit more into that.

Interesting short view overall, but leaves the viewer interested in architecture a bit disappointed.