You
basically have two legitimate employment options in Humboldt County: logging
and marijuana dispensaries. The former is highly discouraged by the state and
local governments, whereas the latter has a regulatory green light, but they
certainly to ought to check out the pot shop where Theresa works. In addition
to Maui Wowie, they sell a special hemlock blend. Get ready to spend a lot of
time with trees and grass in fashion maven sisters Kate & Laura Mulleavy’s Woodshock (trailer here), which opens tomorrow
in New York.
One
day, Theresa brings home some of her special blend for her terminally ill
mother, but the resulting guilt crushes her psyche. She spends whole days moping
around her mother’s house or wandering the forest outside in a t-shirt and
panties. Her logger husband Nick isn’t around much, because his company finally
received clearance to clear a patch of old growth trees. Occasionally, she shows
up to work at Keith’s Dr. Feelgood dispensary, but she is so out of it, she “mishandles”
the “special blend.” She is either going crazy or perhaps the spirit of the clear-cut
forest is calling out to her—most likely, it is the first option.
You
have to wonder what was described on the pages of the Mulleavys’ script that
convinced Kirsten Dunst this could be her next-level-up film. Did they actually
write out: “Theresa walks around the forest in her underwear hugging trees,
then we cut to an owl, and then back to Theresa, super-imposing a double image
on top of her, to suggest her soul might be leaving her body, at which point
she suddenly awakes in her bed?”
That
is what the whole, maddening film is like. It is sort of a Twin Peaks without the characters, dialogue, plot, and mythology. Basically,
all that leaves are some strobe lights in the woods. To be fair, Dunst has
enough presence to withstand the constant, withering close-ups, but to no real
end. Pilou Asbæk, drastically slimmed down from his memorable turn as the
loutish Didrich in 1864, makes a
convincing drunk, but he doesn’t get much else to do as Keith. At least he gets
more screen time than poor Joe Cole’s Nick, who disappears for inexplicably
long stretches even though they are married and live together in the house they
used to share with her late mum.
