Mojave

Mojave is a classical, cerebral thriller about a brilliant, near-suicidal artist, Thomas (Garrett Hedlund), who attempts to escape his privileged existence into the desert only to encounter a homicidal, chameleon-like drifter - Jack (Oscar Isaac). Their first encounter at a campfire sets up a nonstop, violent duel of physical and intellectual equals. The game intensifies when Jack, while in murderous pursuit of Thomas, witnesses Thomas' accidental killing of an innocent man he has mistaken for Jack. The chase moves from the spectacular vistas of the American desert to a noir Los Angeles, where Jack discovers Thomas' notoriety as an artist and continues to remake his own identity in relentless pursuit of his victim, culminating in a vortex of criminality and brutality as Thomas emerges as an equally dangerous opponent. (A24)