Woodyanders Review of Where the Air Is Cool and Dark

Where the Air Is Cool and Dark (1997)

An interesting and effective indie drama about drug addiction and compromised ambitions

[8/10 · 10 November 2011]

Recovering drug addict Emmett LeClere (a fine and engaging performance by Emmanuel Malcolm Martinez) returns to his Olympic Peninsula home to make an independent movie. Emmett winds up getting a job as a logger and a second gig taking care of a friend's marijuana crop. Moreover, Emmett gets involved again with fellow addict and ex-girlfriend Laura Fine (well played by Hollis Welsh), which in turn causes him to going back to doing drugs and alcohol. Writer/director Brion Rockwell brings a very realistic, credible, and refreshingly restrained slice-of-life quality to the absorbing story: the characters are completely believable as complex and flawed people, there's a strong sense of time and place (the scenes at the logging camp and the bleak atmosphere of the dreary small town in particular are quite vividly rendered), and Rockwell's stark and straightforward approach to the subject matter wisely avoids both cheap melodrama and lurid sensationalism. The sturdy acting by the capable non-star cast helps a lot: Martinez excels in the lead, with excellent support from Welsh, John Klein as Emmett's sour and cynical friend Dell, Darlene Sellers as the sweet Madeleine Wild, and Damien P. Daley as amiable veteran logger Earl. In addition, there are several striking sequences that make a powerful impression: Earl's abrupt death in which he gets killed by a fallen tree branch is simply devastating while the bravura set piece with Terry Lee Hale singing the touching song "Train to Mercy" on a movie set is likewise startling. Robert Jeff Barkley's picturesque cinematography astutely captures the pervasive gloominess of the dismal Washington locations. The folksy score by Chris Eckman, Pete Gerrald, and Carla Forgerson hits the delicately harmonic spot. Best of all, there's an utterly lived-in aspect to this film that greatly enhances its overall poignancy and plausibility. A real sleeper.