Candy Mountain
New York City, 1980s. A struggling, deadbeat musician named Julius has fallen on hard times. With no guitar, band or paying gigs, he cooks up a get-rich-quick scheme – to find the legendary, yet elusive guitar-maker Elmore Silk. Considered one of the greatest luthiers in the business, Silk’s disappearance from the scene has only made his work more coveted by musicians and executives looking to make a buck off his name. Julius agrees to track the man down and sets out on the road. Meant to be a simple journey upstate, Julius stumbles down a long, winding road full of dead-ends and wrong turns towards an eventual revelatory conclusion in the Canadian wilderness. One of the great cult classics of the 1980s and starring character actors Kevin J O’Conner and Harris Yulin, the supporting cast features real-life music legends Tom Waits, Leon Redbone, Joe Strummer, Dr. John, David Johansen and more. “A wry, laid-back Heart of Darkness" (Chicago Reader), Candy Mountain combines the keen eye of legendary photographer Robert Frank with novelist/screenwriter Rudy Wurlitzer’s mythic American prose to produce the quintessential road movie.
Cast
- Kevin J. O'Connor
- Harris Yulin
- Tom Waits
- Bulle Ogier
- Joe Strummer
- Arto Lindsay
- David Johansen
- David Margulies
- Leon Redbone
- "[T]his shaggy-dog hipster road film is Frank’s ultimate work...."
- "Ambling along like a wry, laid-back "Heart of Darkness," this likable and touching film makes good use of Frank's remarkable photographic eye and Wurlitzer's witty, acerbic, and quasi-mystical handling of myth that has served him well in his novels."
- "The big surprise in "Candy Mountain" is how much fun it is. Co-directors Robert Frank and Rudy Wurlizer take the dated road movie off its bricks, gussy it up and keep it chugging along. And you get sweeter on "Candy" with every passing mile."
- "''Candy Mountain''... seems to be a small, quirky film, but it easily assumes the weight, ambition and success that many larger films aim for and miss."
- "Watching "Candy Mountain," we're lulled into a mood of uncertain but pleasurable anticipation. It's the kind of sensation that comes from not quite knowing where you are, or where you'll wind up next, like driving through unfamiliar territory without a map. This isn't an experience that we encounter much at the movies these days, and that's not meant as a criticism; it's high praise."
Gallery
Awards & Recognition
Silver Seashell
San Sebastián International Film Festival
Locarno Film Festival
Int'l. Film Festival Rotterdam
London Film Festival
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