Oren Shai’s feature directorial debut is a pulpy neo-noir with echoes of classic Westerns, starting with the film’s Arizona desert setting. It’s there that femme fatale Laine (Jocelin Donahue) has fled, taking refuge at a place called The Frontier, run by world-weary Luanne (a terrific Kelly Lynch). But Laine soon learns that the seemingly quiet motel is a hideout for thieves who’ve just stolen $2 million - and devises her own plan to take it from them. Shooting on Super 16mm, cinematographer Jay Keitel gives a shadowy, textured and wonderfully lush look to this tale of desperation and double-crosses.

Wanna watch thugs crush helpless station wagons with a monster truck? Wanna see Patrick Swayze tear out a guy’s throat with his bare hands? This is your movie! Swayze stars as a top-notch bouncer (or “cooler”) brought in to Jasper, Missouri, to tame the Double Deuce club. Complicating his work is local hood Ben Gazzara. Kelly Lynch and Sam Elliott costar in this action-packed guilty pleasure.

Devilishly charming Matt Dillon is the head honcho of a quartet of ne’er-do-well addicts (the superb Kelly Lynch, James LeGros and Heather Graham round out the foursome) who support their habits by robbing drugstores in the mid-1970s Northwest. Director Gus Van Sant expertly shifts his matter-of-fact tone from humorous to gut-wrenching, proving a potent force to be reckoned with in his first major film. The picture that made critics stand up and really take notice of Matt Dillon’s multi-faceted talent. With James Remar as Dillon’s cop nemesis and William Burroughs as a junkie ex-priest.