There's a percent of the population, and I'll say over 50 percent, who will find Trona incredibly annoying. But generally, what percentage of the population even sees any particular movie - maybe 10 percent for your average blockbuster? Well, Trona certainly isn't a blockbuster, yet I'll count myself in the minority as someone who wasn't annoyed by it - then again, I loved Gus Van Sant's notorious arthouse film Gerry, too.

Trona's similarity to Gerry begins and ends with long, studied shots of a man wandering around in the desert, but if you liked Van Sant's 8-minute static shot of Casey Affleck and friend shambling towards the horizon, you'll probably find a lot to like in Trona's laconic shaggy-dog-in-the-scrub-brush story.

Lacking a specific plot, Trona is for those who enjoy the journey more than the destination. A man works on some reports in an anonymous motel room, getting ready fly home to a relationship that seems also in need of work. Without much outward effort, he exudes detachment and ennui, daydreaming as his flight takes him over ever more abstract landscapes. Suddenly and without explanation he's standing on a desolate road in the middle of a desert. Before you can say 'quirky' he's wandering around a dried-up old mill town in nothing but his underwear. Aimlessness and pure disenfranchisement accrue at a perfectly measured pace, and then ... nothing.

I asked myself after about 20 minutes if I shouldn't be incredibly aggravated by Trona. As I'd been drinking a beer, I checked with my wife, she wasn't losing her patience either (but she loved Gerry too) and so we agreed something was working well. Call it spot-on timing, among other things. A brief running time (about an hour) means that each lazily clever sequence never outstays its welcome. When The Man (David Nordstrom) confronts a boy doing maddening circles in the street on a 'hoppity' we're well shy of our limit when the boy finally gets a bag of food for The Man for two dollars. The bag includes Vienna sausages and cheez-whiz, which The Man eats sitting on a sun-baked loading dock of a long-ago defunct company. Vaguely dolorous attention to minute detail sucks us into a heat-stroke-stupor then smoothly moves on to the next abstract scenario.

These low-impact bits of geek-show weirdness (such as a Robitussin party with the worst, most heartfelt band ever) work through beautifully composed shots, and Cassavetes inspired realism. The Man's ruminations in an auto graveyard could be 'screen captured' and hung on a wall as large-scale prints. A nap on a bench enjoys an unselfconscious interplay of shapes, while broken down shacks meld organically with the scenery. Nordstrom never overplays his everyman but no-man role, he's lightly funny, affable and mildly good-looking - like a young Bruce Campbell coming out of a morphine haze. Two other principals with brief roles amp up the realism, and the rest of the bit players seem to have been pulled directly from the streets.

Arch quirkiness and no plot will take you only so far, however, but Trona makes it the rest of the way in the same riding-the-edge fashion, with humor as dry as the desert surroundings. In fitting with the rest of the film, most of the laughs come from visual bits - bald men on the airplane for instance - that might not even be meant as jokes, just more detached observations from a man utterly adrift.

The DVD

Video:
Trona looks to be presented in a 1.78:1 ratio (our screener arrived without packaging so I'm guessing) and looks pretty good. A little film grain crops up, as do some minor compression artifacts - particularly where lines at the side of the road and things of that nature are concerned. Colors are muted by design but look very natural. As an independent release, everything looks relatively swell in Trona.

Sound:
Minus packaging information, I'm not sure what audio processing is used, but Trona sounds pretty nice. Dialog is clear and the soundtrack music is nicely evocative and doesn't compete.

Extras:
A two-minute Previsualization Sketch lays out what Trona is aiming for, (in hopes of getting investors, maybe) a focus on beautiful cinematography and industrial decay. Warning - graphic shot of dead bunny included. Fireworks Footage consists of four minutes of the Robo-ed-out band playing their ultra lo-fi skronk. Imagine trashed Mormon teens trying to channel Spacemen 3 and you'll be as close to the mark as it's possible to get, which in this case is still pretty far off. The two-and-a-half-minute Trailer and 17 minutes of other Reel Indies Previews round out the mix.

Final Thoughts:
Trona is not for everyone, like Gerry, it may be for hardly anyone, but you could do far worse than to Rent It. Writer/director David Fenster crafts an ennui-soaked shaggy dog story without even a shaggy dog, full of visual flair, subversively parched humor, masterful timing and unique performances. Those things it lacks - plot, momentum and a conclusion - will alienate the pedestrian viewer, but should act as an outsider's calling card for those who like their cinema challenging, with a side of sand.

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