[yasr_overall_rating]
Trapped by daily routine, a man experiences complete freedom by dreaming himself across the country in a psychedelic Volkswagen with the guiding words of philosopher Alan Watts.
Reed (Kyle Gallner) is going through his ordinary daily routine in life as a millennial who is trying to find his way. He has a rigid routine that he follows faithfully but seems lost in his daily grind. Then Dwayne (Adam Herschmann), Reed’s cousin, comes to visit during spring break and Dwayne sees right away that Reed is in need of breaking out of his daily grind and focuses on helping out his cousin. It is during his stay that Dwayne tells Reed about a Chinese concoction that will transport him to a fully realized dream-like reality. After one drink, Reed is hooked on the concoction. He quickly enjoys who he is searching for in himself, than the real Reed that follows a rigid routine.
Soon he takes to the open road, dreaming himself across America in a psychedelic Volkswagen. It’s on this trip that he ponders the age-old question that we have all asked ourselves from time to time: Who am I? And what purpose do I serve?
While on this trip (dream) Reed meets Devin (Devin Finch) and Wendy (Sady Diallo), a freewheeling couple looking to have a strange sexual encounter. Yet, Reed leaves Devin and Wendy quickly and hits the road again. This time he meets Maya (Celia Diane). Maya, to me, was the girl that helped change Reed into the person that he craved to be but was either unwilling or unable to change himself.
Overall, I enjoyed the film that comes in just a little over an hour and a half. The beginning was slow and if you can overcome the first twenty minutes of the film, you are in for a pleasant surprise. Kyle Gallner does an outstanding job of playing Reed and the cast delivers their lines naturally. At times I got the feeling that I was watching a music video instead of a film, but it worked for this feature. Simply put, this film explores the dream we all have that we want to last forever, but unfortunately, we wake up from. “Zen Dog” takes it a step further and allows Reed to go back and finish his dream.
Finally, you might be asking yourself, what is “Zen Dog?” According, to Rick Darge, who both wrote and directed the movie, as stated in an interview with Variety, he wanted to place a twist on the road trip genre and that the movie “Easy Rider” had a big influence on him. So, when you add a road trip genre to a dream narrative, you get “Zen Dog.”
In theaters and on Blu-ray & VOD June 22nd
