the movie open with beautiful landscape shot of the northwest countryside . fenceposts jut out from soddy earth and a freight train cross field of hay in the distance and billow of cloud and small structure by the side of the road and a motel or a diner in the middle of nowhere . over this play a languid but mysterious twin peak piano arrangement and it all adequately moody and atmospheric in an american gothic sort of way . through this however director jon jost keep interleave awkward frame and block of letter and open credit with annoy swoosh sound and color frame that announce blue and number that count towards the 12 step to a conclusion announce in the opening credit . it obvious by the first couple of minute that and though jost be more than capable to capture landscape and ambiance and he doesn not care for it . he have neither the affection for pacific northwest open expanse that terrence malick do in badlands and neither the time or inclination of twin peak david lynch to weave mystery and intrigue around a give location . the rest of the movie be more jon jost frustration with experimental trick that serve their own purpose . the use of split screen be interesting and i like in particular how we get the first image of ricky lee split in two and one be recount childhood memory that matter only to him and the other be curse and bang his head against the wall and and over the course of the movie the second ricky lee prevails and the macho lay back hipster with the shade who be hopelessly self involve and stupid . on the other hand the stop motion animation and choice to play most of the movie in voice over narration do not work . it do at time because jost writes as good a he shoot static shot of the smalltown american nowheresville but beth ann monologue and deliver in the most flat nasal monotone imaginable and a voice that sound like stephen hawk computer speech program cross with a horse whinnying and be so grate to the ear it kind of defeat the purpose of try to pay attention . each of the couple relate to u their past experience and their small triumph and folly and doubt and past relationship that go nowhere . they say very little to each other and what they say they say with blank face . but they hump like rabbit . that seem to be their only channel of communication leave open and perhaps the only one they can trust with any safety . jost clearly pick his main character in frameup among the naive and delusional and those bait by an american dream turn sour and but he doesn not place himself above them . he not condescend or smug in his portrayal . they may be misguide but they be grace with moment of humanity and awkward though they may be . be call to empathize and show affection rather than point and laugh . this be the most successful frameup becomes while the movie character come alive even when their expressionless face do not and even when jost get in their way with his stilted framing and obtrusive camera game . then we go back to angry rant about the destructive effect of money play over an inserted shot of a dollar bill and we get a weird psychedelic sequence where jost camera glide under big leafy tree that soon turn beetroot red a beth ann repeatedly muse about the redwood tree in the voice over and we even get a sudden about turn towards plot and genre a the couple of beth ann and ricky lee and smalltown loser with nowhere to go and nothing to hold them back to their dead end life and arrive in california and decide to rob a 7/11 . the movie doesn not soar to an emotional crescendo in the aftermath of the botched 7/11 job such a one might expect from a couple on the run road movie and it slowly screech to a halt and you look out the window to see it hasn not really get anyplace in particular . part of the ride have be hypnotic and part almost touch and funny and but everything else have be mostly annoy .