''Road to Paloma'' is a 2014 American

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

directed by (in his directorial debut), produced by, co-written by, and starring

Jason Momoa Joseph Jason Namakaeha Momoa (; born August 1, 1979) is an American actor. He made his acting debut as Jason Ioane on the syndicated action drama series '' Baywatch: Hawaii'' (1999–2001), which was followed by portrayals of Ronon Dex on the S ...

. Robert Homer Mollohan co-stars and co-wrote the script. It also co-stars

Sarah Shahi Aahoo Jahansouzshahi ( fa, آهو جهانسوز شاهی; born ), known professionally as Sarah Shahi (), is an American actress and former model. She played Carmen on ''The L Word'' in 2005, Kate Reed in the USA Network legal drama ''Fairly Leg ...

, Lisa Bonet,

Michael Raymond-James Michael Raymond-James (born Michael Weverstad; December 24, 1977) is an American actor. He is best known for playing René Lenier in the first season of the HBO series ''True Blood'', Britt Pollack on the FX series ''Terriers'', Neal Cassidy/B ...

Chris Browning Christopher Jay Browning (born March 8, 1964) is an American television and film actor, known for film work and character roles. Career Browning began his acting career in 1987, at age 22 or 23, with a sitcom television series. Due to his drug ...

, Timothy V. Murphy, and

Wes Studi Wesley Studi ( chr, ᏪᏌ ᏍᏚᏗ; born December 17, 1947) is a Native American ( Cherokee Nation) actor and film producer. He has garnered critical acclaim and awards throughout his career, particularly for his portrayal of Native American ...

. The film was released on July 11, 2014.

Plot

After murdering his mother's rapist, Wolf, a Native American, flees from the law. Six months later he meets up with a drifter called Cash and heads north to his sister's property where he intends to go spread his mother's ashes, but with the law right behind him his dream to lay his mother to peace may come at a price.

Cast

as Robert Wolf *

as Eva * Lisa Bonet as Magdalena *

as Irish *

as Numay *

Jill Wagner Jill Suzanne Wagner (born ) is an American actress and television personality. She was the on-field host for the ABC game show '' Wipeout'' from 2008 to 2014. Since then, Wagner has starred in several made-for-television films for the Hallmark ...

as Sandy *

Lance Henriksen Lance Henriksen (born May 5, 1940) is an American actor. He is known for his works in various science fiction, action and horror films, such as that of Bishop in the ''Alien'' film franchise, and Frank Black in Fox television series ''Millenn ...

as FBI Agent Kelly * Timothy V. Murphy as Williams *

as Schaeffer * James Harvey Ward as Billy *

Linden Chiles Truman Linden Chiles (March 22, 1933 – May 15, 2013) was an American character actor. Early years Chiles was born in St. Louis, Missouri but grew up in Barrington, Illinois. He graduated from Northwestern University with a bachelor of arts ...

as Bob * Steve Reevis as Totonka *

Tanoai Reed Tanoai Reed (born February 10, 1974) is an American stuntman and actor. He is the cousin and stunt double of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Reed was born in Honolulu, Hawaii of Samoan and Norwegian, Swedish, Irish descent. After the separation of ...

as Moose *Robert Homer Mollohan as Cash

Production

In October 2011

stated that he was writing, directing and acting in an upcoming project, ''Road to Paloma''. Made for $600,000, filming began in February 2012 in Needles, California, where half of the filming was to be done. The rest took place in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

and

Bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...

. Momoa set

Shovels & Rope Shovels & Rope are an American folk duo from Charleston, South Carolina composed of husband and wife Michael Trent and Cary Ann Hearst. Combining threads from their individual solo careers, Shovels & Rope blends traditional folk, rock and roll ...

and

The Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...

to score the music for the film.

Filming

Filming was scheduled to begin in February 2012 in Needles, California, where half of the filming was to be done with the rest set to take place in Los Angeles and

. Additional scenes filmed near Mexican Hat, Monument Valley and Kayenta. End scenes possibly Henrys Fork of Green River near Kings Peak in the high Uintas.

Release

On August 13, 2013 it was announced that

WWE Studios WWE Studios Inc. (formerly known as WWE Films) is an American film studio owned by the professional wrestling promotion WWE. WWE Studios movies frequently mix well-known actors and actresses in lead roles with WWE wrestlers, and teams with exist ...

and

Anchor Bay Entertainment Anchor Bay Entertainment (formerly Video Treasures and Starmaker Entertainment) was an American home entertainment and production company. It was a subsidiary of Starz Inc. Anchor Bay Entertainment marketed and sold feature films, television se ...

had acquired distribution rights in North America, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. A late 2013 release was planned. The film premiered at 2014 Sarasota Film Festival in April. The film gained positive reviews.

Reception

''Road to Paloma'' got "mixed to average" reviews from

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, receiving 44 out of a 100, based on 8 reviews. On

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 holds a rating of 57%, based on 14 reviews, with an average rating of 5.5/10. Frank Scheck of ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly larg ...

'' said that the film is "straining mightily for a mythic quality and reaching a predictably melancholic, violent conclusion, ''Road to Paloma'' mainly comes across as a vanity project star vehicle. Jeannette Catsoulis of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' criticized "the film's loose naturalism" , but praised its strong acting, specifically "

, as a liaison between the F.B.I. and the reservation", saying that in her opinion, " hat wasespecially enjoyable". Gary Goldstein of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' said that "though there's nothing terribly profound or unique about actor Jason Momoa's feature writing-directing debut, 'Road to Paloma', it does prove an effective throwback to the loose-limbed, my-way-or-the-highway road movies of the ''

Easy Rider ''Easy Rider'' is a 1969 American independent drug culture road drama film written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern, produced by Fonda, and directed by Hopper. Fonda and Hopper play two bikers who travel through the American So ...

'' era".

References

External links

*
Road to Paloma
at the ComingSoon.net {{WWE Studios Films shot in Los Angeles Films shot in California 2010s road movies American road movies 2014 thriller films American thriller films WWE Studios films American chase films Motorcycling films Films about Native Americans 2014 directorial debut films 2014 drama films 2014 films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films