Comedy
Drama
An academic obsessed with roadside attractions and his tv-star daughter stop at a small desert town to see the world's largest ice cream cone, where, because of an accident that spilled an unknown substance all over the highway, they are forced to spend a few days with the towns eccentric residents.
Directors
Kate Hudson
Skye Davidson
Brendan Sexton III
Blue Baxter
John Heard
Prof. Lance Davidson
Christina Ricci
Ely Jackson
Casey Affleck
Pete Kepler
Sara Gilbert
Sandy
Ethan Suplee
Cale
Peter Sarsgaard
Billy Baxter
Lucinda Jenney
Caroline Baxter
Michael Ironside
Agent Frank Bellows
Daniel von Bargen
Sheriff Jackson
Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor
Agent Summers
Lee Holmes
Deputy Keeler
Isidra Vega
Haley Gordon
Rene Rivera
Dr. Gordon
Fred Schneider
KBLU Radio DJ (voice)
Liev Schreiber
Mickey Moonday (voice)
Richmond Arquette
Truck Driver
Directors
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User reviews1
Review
Featured review
**_Long stop at a desolate settlement in the Southwest and the peculiar people thereof_**
A TV actress and her professor father (Kate Hudson and John Heard) stop at a dying mining town in the desert to see a roadside attraction and inadvertently become stuck there for a few days. The eccentric citizens include a young man preoccupied with his late father’s dream (Brendan Sexton III), a girl obsessed with pipe bombs (Christina Ricci), an ATV racer (Casey Affleck) and a woman who runs a diner (Lucinda Jenney).
“Desert Blue” (1998) is a quirky indie drama influenced by TV’s Northern Exposure. It’s comparable to Australia’s "Rikky and Pete" from ten years prior and a little “Gas Food Lodging,” as well as later movies like "3 Nights in the Desert” and a bit o’ “Don’t Come Knocking.”
There’s an air of emptiness and the story is kind of boring, throwing in a curious subplot about an ominous cola factory. Still, the flick has its points of interest, like finding inspiration in the least likely places.
You’ll see some snow here and there, which, by happenstance, was the most snow the isolated town had seen in three decades during shooting.
It runs 1 hour, 27 minutes, and was shot in Goldfield in southwest Nevada with the Los Angeles Aqueduct scenes done in Jawbone Canyon, which is almost a 4-hour drive southwest of Goldfield and a 2-hour drive north of Los Angeles.
GRADE: B-/C+
Wuchak07 Sep, 2025
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Box office
Budget
$2,000,000Gross worldwide
$100,590
































































