This is a misfire from Oscar winning screenwriter William Monahan. In Mojave, Thomas (Garrett Hedlund) a successful but jaded artist in the movie business meets a mysterious drifter, Jack (Oscar Isaac) out in the desert. Jack is a Shakespeare spouting sociopath and once he finds out that Thomas is wealthy, he torments him leading to an accidental death of an innocent.

Jack then goes after Thomas back in Los Angeles trying to disrupt his privileged life now he knows Thomas has something to hide. It is a murky, existential thriller with hard boiled dialogue and unlikable characters as well as a satire on Hollywood lifestyles with Walton Goggins and Mark Wahlberg making cameo appearances in this underdeveloped film.

This one has all the Trappings of a Neat Neo-Noir. An Independent Production, an Oscar Winning Screenwriter (who here takes on Directing),and an Actor named Oscar who is a Hot-Ticket these Days.

But the Film is as Dry as the Desert and is only Occasionally Interesting trying to keep up with all of the Literary References and Wordy Wordplay and to maybe, just maybe, figure out who is the Smartest, the Protagonist or the Antagonist.

Other than that, the Story is so Ambiguous and Vague it Muddles the Movie as the Backstory is Nothing and goes Nowhere. A couple of Recognizable Faces show up and face the fact that all of the Energy is Elsewhere.

Mainly, the Battle of Wits between Overwritten Leads that Jaw Endlessly about Existential Experiences and Unexplained Occurrences in Their Lives, and what it All Means, or is there Meaninglessness in Everything. Whew!

Garrett Hedlund is the "Good Guy", or is He? "Have you figured out who is the bad guy here?", is one of the Ponders in the Ponderous and Pretentious Dialog.

Overall, Worth a Watch with Low Expectations and a Willingness to keep Frosty and wonder where and when the Next Philosophical Musing will Lead. Hint...... "When you get what you want...What do you want?"

I can deal with the narcissism and self-absorption of a writer if a given work is brewed with 3-dimensional characters and a clever, interesting plot. But what we get with William Monohan's script is a juvenile, wet dream-inspired cliche of contrived cynicism and faux-pontification about material success and loneliness. The characters may as well have been lifted from a high-schooler's writing course. I wanted them ALL to die. Horribly. Oscar Isaac's character could have provided some touch of wisdom to this derived narrative, but Monohan was too preoccupied with appearing cool, aloof, and autodidactically intellectual. Every 19 year old boy (and some girls, I'm sure) have written characters like this. We can't help it, even though we know it's bad.

The problem is that Hollywood keeps indulging that urge. I could say that Monohan knows how to do better than this, but given how Hollywood tends to work, It's hard to divine whether it was actually HIS contributions to 'The Departed' that made it good, or some uncredited writer.

Movies as bad as this do serve a function--they're good examples of what NOT to do.