''Tyger Tyger'' is a 2021 pandemic thriller written and directed by Kerry Mondragon. It stars

Dylan Sprouse Dylan Thomas Sprouse (born August 4, 1992) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Zack Martin on the Disney Channel series ''The Suite Life of Zack & Cody'' and its spin-off, ''The Suite Life on Deck'', where he starred along ...

, Sam Quartin, Nekhebet Kum Juch, Thea Sofie Loch Naess, Craig Stark, Eden Anne Brolin, Alma Martinez, and Max Madsen. Filmed on location in Southern California’s

Slab City Slab City, also called The Slabs, is an unincorporated, off-the-grid alternative lifestyle community consisting largely of snowbirds in the Salton Trough area of the Sonoran Desert, in Imperial County, California. It took its name from concrete sl ...

and Bombay Beach, the film gathered notoriety because it portrays a mysterious pandemic, yet was filmed just before the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

begun.

Cast

* Sam Quartin as Blake *

as Luke * Thea Sofie Loch Naess as Emerald * Craig Stark as Joe * Eden Brolin as Tammie * Nekhebet Kum Juch as Bobby * Max Madsen as Cole * Alma Martinez as Doctor Rosa *

Barbara Palvin Barbara Palvin (; born 8 October 1993)Palvin Barbara's Hungarian biography
...

as Eggzema

Plot

An outlaw woman and her gang robs a pharmacy of its pandemic meds in order to distribute the meds in an anarchic Free City in the Southern California Desert. During her escape, she kidnaps a junkie and they fall in love on the lam, finding themselves trapped in the fringe lands of a psychedelic city beyond the law.

Production

The film was written by Mondragon based on his own experiences with drugs. He wrote it in two weeks, after having spent some time in the encampments of Slab City, California. Tyger Tyger was filmed at

, an anarchic off the grid squatter city build on an abandoned military base in the Sonoran Desert and populated by "

anarchists Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessari ...

, artists, drug addicts, eccentrics, outcasts, retirees, and the impoverished." Filmed on an ultra-low budget, it has been nevertheless been compared to ''

Nomadland ''Nomadland'' is a 2020 American drama film written, produced, edited and directed by Chloé Zhao. Based on the 2017 nonfiction book '' Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century'' by Jessica Bruder, it stars Frances McDormand ...

'' since it features performances by non-actors in their natural environments.

Release

On February 26, 2021, the film received a limited theatrical release and as

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...

the same day.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

the film has an approval rating of 10% average rating of 3.9/10 based on reviews from 10 critics.

Hollywood Insider ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...

called it "a stunning ode to art". '' Brazilian Press'' saw the film as Mondragon's rise as an auteur. Leslie Felperin of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' commented that, "(T)he film-makers are lucky poor old William Blake’s work is out of copyright, otherwise his heirs (were any to be found) would have a good reason to sue." Peter Sobczynski of RogerEbert.com called it a "boring, incoherent mess". Alex Saveliev of

Film Threat ''Film Threat'' is an online film review publication, and earlier, a national magazine that focused primarily on independent film, although it also reviewed videos and DVDs of mainstream films, as well as Hollywood movies in theaters. It first ...

wrote: "If you enjoy being sober around your trippin’ buddies, then Tyger Tyger may be for you, but you’re much more likely to feel left out."

References

Sources

* * *
Movie Review: 'TYGER TYGER' (2021) A Unique Modern Age Western-Drama

How Kerry Mondragon Confronted Personal Demons To Make Fantasy Thriller 'Tyger Tyger'

Dylan Sprouse on 'Tyger Tyger,' Taking Back Agency, Learning Mandarin, & More

External links

* {{IMDB title, id=8787632, title=Tyger Tyger 2021 films Psychedelic films 2021 directorial debut films Films about infectious diseases