"Outside Ozona" is a peculiar mixture of several different film genres, including the "road movie", a comedy, a drama, and a thriller. Oh, and a violent serial killer is also on the loose. Set over one very eventful night, the film delves into the lives of several characters passing through the desert town outside of Ozona, Arizona, including a lonely truck driver (Robert Forster); a trailer trash couple (Kevin Pollak, Penelope Ann Miller) travelling to Las Vegas; two bickering sisters (Sherilyn Fenn, Beth Ann Styne) on their way to their father's funeral; a hitchiker with car trouble (David Paymer); and a kind native american woman (Lois Red Elk) taking her dying grandmother (Kateri Walker) to see New Mexico. Alternately original, overstuffed, convoluted, and intriguing, writer-director J.S. Cardone has created an ambitious film, to be sure, but one that never quite takes off.

©1999 by Dustin Putman