Desert Blue

For the butterflies with this common name, see Euchrysops nilotica and Jalmenus aridus.

Desert Blue is a 1998 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Morgan J. Freeman, and starring Brendan Sexton III, Kate Hudson, Christina Ricci, Casey Affleck, Sara Gilbert, and John Heard.^[1]

Desert Blue
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Morgan J. Freeman
Written by	Morgan J. Freeman
Produced by	Effie Brown Michael Burns Nadia Leonelli Andrea Sperling
Starring	Brendan Sexton III Kate Hudson John Heard Christina Ricci Casey Affleck Sara Gilbert Ethan Suplee Peter Sarsgaard Michael Ironside
Cinematography	Enrique Chediak
Edited by	Sabine Hoffmann
Music by	Vytas Nagisetty
Distributed by	Franchise Pictures
Release date	September 12, 1998 (1998-09-12)
Running time	90 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Plot

A rising Hollywood starlet becomes "marooned" in a small desert town while on a roadtrip with her father. There, she gets to know the town's rather eccentric residents, including one whose hobby is pipe bombs and another who is trying to carry out his father's dream of building a waterpark in the desert.

Cast

• Brendan Sexton III as Blue Baxter
• Kate Hudson as Skye Davis
• Christina Ricci as Ely Jackson
• Casey Affleck as Peter Kepler
• John Heard as Professor Lance Davidson
• Ethan Suplee as Cale
• Sara Gilbert as Sandy
• Isidra Vega as Haley Gordon
• Peter Sarsgaard as Billy Baxter
• Rene Rivera as Dr. Gordon
• Lee Holmes as Deputy Keeler
• Lucinda Jenney as Caroline Baxter
• Jerry Agee as Insurance Agent
• Daniel Von Bargen as Sheriff Jackson
• Richmond Arquette as Truck Driver
• Michael Ironside as FBI Agent Frank Bellows
• Nate Moore as FBI Agent Red
• Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine as FBI Agent Green
• Aunjanue Ellis as FBI Agent Summers
• Fred Schneider as KBLU Radio DJ (voice)
• Liev Schreiber as Mickey Moonday (voice)
• MacDaddy Beefcake as Telly Clems (voice)

Soundtrack

The soundtrack features songs by The Candyskins, Rilo Kiley, Janis Ian, and others.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes, review aggregator, reports that 37% of 19 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating was 5/10.^[2] Glenn Lovell of Variety called it "a cloying, mechanically plotted comedy".^[3] Lawrence Van Gelder of The New York Times wrote, "The graceful literary and directorial touch of Morgan J. Freeman turns these youngsters into individuals rather than cinema's customary caricatures".^[1] John Anderson of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "It's a small story, perhaps even an ephemeral movie, but Desert Blue also has a novelistic capacity for character and setting, without either the maudlin sentimentality or gratuitous vulgarity of most teen-oriented movies."^[4] Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times rated it three out of four stars and compared it to The Last Picture Show and U Turn, saying that it is the "herbal tea" version of the latter.^[5] Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a grade of C and described the setting as "yet another indie drama set in a burg reminiscent, by way of aggressive eccentricity, of TV's Northern Exposure."^[6]