Black Rock

'Black Rock' is never dull, but it's hardly the attention-grabbing calling card its creator presumably intended.

The writing tanks while the actors try to stay above water, but nobody leaves a trace on the radar.

This is a lean and mean variation on a familiar theme, tense throughout, with some terrific performances.

It seemed that Black Rock might take its very basic premise and use it as a platform to explore larger ideas. But even on its own terms as just a lean-and-mean genre exercise, this one's not all that interesting.

Aselton, you sure have a purty mouth, but what are you trying to say?

This indie, female-centric riff on "Deliverance" is spare, smartly written and shot through with moments of twig-snapping tension.

Black Rock is much more complex than your average run-of-the-mill "run from danger, pretty lady" kind of movie.

A tight-fisted little piece of gender-centric survival horror.

Black Rock is a simplistic, predictable thriller that fails to become engaging thanks to idiotic characters and a by the numbers approach that has the audience two steps ahead of them.

This isn't quite the distaff Deliverance promised, but it's a credible indie thriller with characters worth caring about.

We've seen Duplass write scripts that break cinema conventions like this, but who knew that his actress wife Aselton would turn out to be an equally innovative director?

Aselton does demonstrate an assured touch in the early character-based scenes, but she lacks the same control when it comes to handling the action.