Where the Air Is Cool and Dark (1997) User Reviews

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

[Woodyanders · 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.

This movie has captured it

[oneofthetwelve · 10/10 · 24 October 2010]

The atmosphere, the doing time in a town of nothing-but-work, the people, drugs and work.. it's all in here.

Most won't understand this movie though, but I do.. been living that way of life also. It's life when you're surrounded by people you like, but ... it's not that simple. Work, is something you have to do also. Emmett returns to his old hometown and after a while he's using lots of cocaine, selling pot and trying to live normal life. As in real life, no party lasts for ever.

It's like an excerpt from someone's real life these days. And a very entertaining one, I didn't feel like 'fwd button, where are you?' a single time during this movie, so in a way, goal accomplished, isn't it?

Low budget but not low quality

[terminallyhip · 8/10 · 30 January 2024]

I was drawn to this obscurity due to the use of (including borrowed title from) music by The Walkabouts.

This will likely be of limited interest to all but a couple of pretty specific communities.

I can only assume that the logging scenes are as realistic as the drug addiction and recovery aspects.

I'm not a logger, but have lived most of the rest of it, right down to the girl shooting up while wearing a white key-tag on her necklace...

I'm never been to the Pacific Northwest, but I found the cinematography great for a low budget feature. Visuals really set the stage for the story.

Maybe a bit disjointed in spots, but I don't need everything explained to me anyway. Absolutely makes up in heart, ambition and guts for any lacking polish.

I thoroughly enjoyed this, and the ending was just right.

One further comment: I started out trying to view this on "Fawesometv".

At 3/4 of the way through, it stopped and would not go any further. Fortunately it was also on "Plex". Finished it there with no problems... "Fawesome" indeed...