The Wilderness

The Wilderness is a visually appealing and atmospheric film that offers moments of genuine beauty and emotional reflection. It creates an engaging setting and establishes an interesting premise that draws the viewer in from the beginning. However, despite its strengths, the film never fully realizes its potential.

The story feels underdeveloped, and several important ideas are introduced without being explored in enough detail. Key events and character motivations could have benefited from deeper explanation, allowing the audience to better understand the consequences and outcomes of the journey. As a result, the film leaves too many questions unanswered, making the overall message feel unclear.

While The Wilderness is enjoyable and thoughtfully made, it would have been a stronger and more satisfying experience with richer storytelling, clearer conclusions, and more narrative depth. It is a good film-but one that could have been much better.

While there was little doubt after Wednesday and Your Honor that Hunter Doohan is a talented actor, this project confirms that he can carry an entire film as a leading man. He brings restraint and vulnerability to the role of Ed. His eyes are extremely expressive, conveying complexity and somehow even clear thoughts through them, even without dialogue in many moments.

The Utah desert is shot beautifully. The cinematography consistently draws you in.

Perhaps most importantly, The Wilderness shines a necessary spotlight on the troubled teen industry and so-called wilderness programs. The film does not sensationalize the subject, but it also does not shy away from the realities. These programs are for-profit enterprises, and the lucrative financial incentives can - and often does - lend itself to abuse, neglect, and systemic harm. It's an uncomfortable truth, and one that deserves far more public attention than it receives.

The Wilderness is an important watch. Anchored by a compelling central performance by Hunter (and also kudos to a great supporting actor performance by Lamar Johnson as Miles), beautifully shot, and socially relevant, it's the kind of film that trusts its audience to sit with discomfort and draw their own conclusions. Well, I conclude these troubled teen programs need to be way more regulated.

Good ambiance. Fine cinematography and sound to match with some decent acting. A thin poorly written story especially in the final moments that were supposed to bring a dramatic conclusion to this dragging story. A swing and a miss about alienated youth straining to find existence in our vacuous culture seemingly void of purpose for many young people.

This was a great drama with a great performance by Hunter Doohan. This guy is going places. The movie takes a slow-burn approach and it has a tense grounded atmosphere . It unfolds as a quiet indictment of coercive "therapeutic" systems, tracing how control disguises itself as care. Beneath its survivalist premise lies a study of obedience, shame, and the moral evasions that sustain institutional harm. The film situates itself within a growing global conversation about youth, rehabilitation, and the failure of programs that claim to heal while profiting from subjugation. Its tone recalls the humanist precision of Indian parallel cinema, where realism functions as critique, and restraint becomes the conduit for moral urgency. The desert operates as both literal and psychic terrain. Though the environment is severe, the film frames it less as an external threat than as an internal mirror-an emotional wilderness defined by fear, compliance, and the slow erosion of will. Hunter delivers a remarkable balance of fragility and defiance, his silence carrying more weight than dialogue could. In general the ensemble anchors the film's moral gravity and the cast's naturalism allows the film's critique to unfold through behavior rather than speech, humanizing the system it exposes.

The movie made a lasting impression on me. Typically I walk out of the movie and don't really remember it much after I've seen it. I will never forget this movie. It was extremely powerful and I love the fact that you are using your talent to make a difference by raising awareness. You are truly a blessing and will make a huge impact with this film!