Infinity Film Festival Beverly Hills (IFF)

Mud (Kyle Gallner) has been trapped in his daily routine for a long time. He runs a struggling virtual reality startup that promises to transport users to exotic locations from the comfort of their homes. Plagued by recurring nightmares of a stranger’s suicide, Mud has a difficult time coping with his monotonous existence.

One day, his eccentric cousin Dwayne (Adam Herschman) shows up at his doorstep, disturbing the comforting pattern Mud has created for himself. Dwayne introduces Mud to the power of lucid dreaming with the hopes that it will quell his nightmares. Thus Mud dreams himself into a road trip across America in a psychedelic Volkswagen. Finding himself experiencing a life without the usual comforts and meeting colourful characters, he starts discovering more than he initially bargained for.

In recent years, many films have dealt with how modern urban life gets alienating, but few have achieved the profound effect of Zen Dog. Writer / Director Rick Darge deftly weaves together his visuals, sounds, touching performances and the words of late philosopher Alan Watts in service of a beautiful, inspiring tale. Using real locations and local crew spanning across the entire United States, the unique production of Zen Dog harkens back to the days of modernist American filmmaking that captured reality in its purest form.