Debut writer/director Alex Goldberg comes out swinging in this remarkably well put together second effort. The star of the film is Los Angeles and the film maker strips it naked without judgment or sentimentality. A young cast and crew anchor a drama about the youngest city in the world, emotionally if not demographically. Some people go there to get famous; some go there to get lost.
Catia Ojeda does the heavy lifting as Nina. Just off the boat from the Mid-west, Nina has parachuted into L.A. to inform her estranged sister of their mother’s recent death and to do something appropriate with Mom’s ashes. Consistent with the search-for-the-lost-person trope, Nina runs into a host of eccentric, adrift and dangerous persons who represent the faces of the city. The most prominent advice is to go back to Kansas, but, of course, there is no turning back. (CONTINUED)