Scenic Route: low budget, good acting.

[piston]

"Scenic Route" is not going to be a top-ranking movie this year. But, as a low budget movie, it certainly ranks high in terms of artistic achievement. Two male actors, old friends, with very different paths in life, have not been communicating at all because one of them has married and settled in. They both take off in an old truck to catch up, but the old pal who is not settled in life and owns nothing, takes his friend on a nowhere road and fakes a truck break down. They have a chance for a ride but he then reveals his strategy and the only car that came down the road that day takes off. But the old truck really breaks down and they are stranded, faced with each other and upset with each other. There's much dialogue, a rare quality these days, about their respective lives, and considerable mutual criticism. It even gets violent and the second half of the movie is a pretty good survival story with a lot of bad survival decisions. The end will come as a surprise. (Silent)