Mojave

William Monahan (Oscar-winning writer of The Departed) doubles up as a director for the second time with this good-looking psycho-thriller. Garrett Hedlund Pan) stars as a jaded film director who's so disenchanted with LA life ("When you get what you want, what do you want?") that he drives into the desert to find himself. Unfortunately, he also finds Oscar Isaac's erudite but spooky drifter, although their first encounter ends with Isaac unconscious and left for dead. The film then veers into Hitcher territory as Isaac discovers who and where Hedlund is, and starts a deadly game of cat and mouse that involves Hedlund's languid French lover (Louise Bourgoin) and his gobby producer (Mark Wahlberg, having a ball in a cameo). However, a pure stalker horror this is not: Monahan takes the opportunity to have a dig at Hollywood and its dissolute denizens, and uses Isaac to deliver aphorisms about "motiveless malignity" and "solitary dudes going mad in the desert", as well as musings on Shakespeare, TE Lawrence, Moby Dick and the Temptation of Christ. Some will feel all this existential soul-searching is a bit pretentious but the locations are well used and Isaac confirms why he's one of the most watchable actors around.