Written and directed by Bishrel Mashbat
Statting Sam Bayaraa, Mike Cali, Robert Corsini
Unrated
Runtime: 1 hour 30 minutes
Available digitally

by Nikk Nelson, Staff Writer, Cinematic Maniac

When writer/director Bishrel Mashbat emailed MovieJawn and asked us to review their film In the Land of Lost Angels (2019), I was watching the Sam Raimi baseball movie For the Love of the Game (1999), so I took it as a sign. I’m always a little hesitant reviewing foreign to me films because my slightly obsessive personality worries there’s going to be a ton of cultural references that I won’t get and therefore I will not be able to fully appreciate the work. So, for example, with this film, part of me wanted to spend weeks studying Mongolian history, art, and pop culture so that I could go into the viewing experience a little more prepared for understanding. Obviously, timeframes don’t conveniently lend themselves to such endeavors. In their email, Bishrel mentioned the film was being billed as the first Mongolian-American film which substantially calmed the chattering in my head because if there’s one thing any American knows, it’s the story of America, because it’s the same story for just about everyone. 

Ankhaa, played in a terrifically subdued performance by Tumursukh Erdenemunkh, ekes out a timid existence in the United States. Back home in Mongolia, his family are about to sell their home in an effort to get adequate medical treatment for Ankhaa’s younger brother who is seriously ill. Ankhaa’s best friend Orgil, played in a perfectly maniacal contrasting turn by Iveel Mashbat, has a plan for their financial woes. Is it pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and working really hard? Fuck no. This is America, baby. $7.25 an hour can’t pay for rent, food, lights, childcare, and cancer treatments. There’s a reason we incarcerate more people than any other country in the world—most people aren’t born with a whole lot of options. It makes me think of that opening line from the Coen Brothers’ Blood Simple (1984): “Now, in Russia, they got it mapped out so that everyone pulls for everyone else. That’s the theory anyway. But what I know about is Texas. And down here, you’re on your own…”

I bring up Blood Simple too because the overall aesthetic of In the Land of Lost Angels reminded me heavily of that film. The opening shot with Ankhaa and Orgil in a car is practically straight out of the opening scene of Blood Simple. Shot in black and white, the other film this brought to mind was Godard’s Breathless (1960). I understand why Breathless is good and important, cinematically, but I personally didn’t enjoy it. I feel it has a jaunty, almost immature tone that betrays the severity of its themes. I like my crime pictures dark more often than not, like something straight out of Jim Thompson, and In the Land of Lost Angels is a very stark movie—from its sets to its characters, to its story, and in its bones. And I like principles that track. 

Mashbat has an undeniably keen instinct of frame and director of photography Mike Maliwanag services it beautifully. The only problematic element for me was the script. Secondary characters are flat, at times bordering on caricature, and the basic story unfortunately suffers from a sense of seeing it a million times before. I think Bishrel Mashbat has most of their growth to do as a writer but if someone gets a solid horror or crime script into those hands, I have no doubt the results will be remarkable. Above all else, potential is what comes across on the screen. I very much look forward to seeing more from this up and coming filmmaker.