A young man’s (C.P. Boyd) job is to deliver flowers to the graves of individuals with no family to do it for them. He spends his days traversing the thousands of gravesites, until one day when he meets a mysterious older man (Dan Berkey). When the man asks the flower deliverer for some help finding the grave of an old friend named Zabriskie a conversation ensues that will change the young man forever.
Zabriskie is an eerie film that immediately takes viewers on a bumpy ride, and just as viewers begin to fall further and further down the veritable rabbit hole, the entire film shifts, taking those viewers in an entirely new direction and shaking up the narrative completely. This shift is the film’s climax, its most prominent moment, and when viewers finally arrive on the same page as the delivery man, they realize that their journey through death has meant something massive. The film is slow moving, but it doesn’t lose the interest of viewers, and they understand by the end of the film that the journey was worth it.
There are some things that occur throughout the course of Zabriskie that I think are meant to do one thing but ultimately reach audiences in an entirely different way. The shift in the narrative I believe is meant to be heartbreaking, to shake things up in a visceral fashion and allow viewers to feel the same, emotionally, as the film’s protagonist. That doesn’t end up being the case, however. To be clear, the twist at the end ultimately filled me with shock and awe rather than sadness. I feel like I was able to feel like part of the story, but in a different capacity than Writer-Director Grant Olans had anticipated. I didn’t feel that heartbreak, but I felt that what eventually came to be was so well disguised throughout Zabriskie that it made me appreciate the film in unexpected ways.
Another instance of this is in regard to the transitions. There are a few quick transitions toward the end of Zabriskie that serve a purpose, but aren’t quite as effective as intended. While the purpose of these transitions are to express time passing, they actually appear to be quite frumpy and ineffective. It didn’t feel like time was passing, but rather that the direction in regard to this aspect of the film failed to a degree. I throw that word “failed” around every once in a while, but I don’t want readers to think that I believe that Zabriskie is a failure. Simply put, Zabriskie reaches viewers in unintentional ways. In this case Olans finds himself attempting to represent time, but rather he taps into the emotion present in the film’s lead. While aspects of this piece of the film feel fractured and imperfect, I think that’s a beautiful reflection of how he would have been feeling at the time. Again, I think that Olans reaches viewers in a roundabout way, but he reaches them nonetheless.
While there are things about Olans’ writing and directing that don’t reach audiences as anticipated (at least as far as I’m concerned), I think there’s something to that–especially knowing that they reached viewers at all. It speaks to a depth that exists within the talent of Olans, meaning that there are layers to what he brings to the table, and that he has the potential to reach viewers in a series of incredible ways. Zabriskie is impressive for reasons that I’m not sure the cast and crew intended. I certainly could be reading this film wrong, because it’s absolutely multi-dimensional. However, in keeping with the tone of the film, I feel as if the oddly fractured, shifting nature of what makes its way to viewers is touching and meaningful. Zabriskie is a beautiful film that has the potential to reach viewers in a number of ways–making clear the passion and talent present in everyone involved.
Written & Directed by Grant Olans.
Starring C.P. Boyd & Dan Berkey.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/10
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