“River of Grass”, the first film by the American director, is clearly a learning project. Engaging in dialogue with the road movie genre (and echoing the New Hollywood films of the 70s), the story revolves around an improbable pair of protagonists, Cozy and Lee, who both lead particularly empty lives. They are aimless losers: Cozy takes care of her children (in a slapdash kind of way) and Lee is still living with his mother. An unlikely event sets the story in motion: Cozy’s father – a detective and jazz drummer in his spare time– loses his gun, which is found by Lee. On a night out, Lee and Cozy (who has left her children on their own) end up in someone’s swimming pool playing around with the gun. They unexpectedly fire a shot in the direction of the owner of the property, who has surprised them. Thinking that they have killed him, the two prepare to run away – and all at once, Lee and Cozy seem to find a real purpose to their lives. However, taking to the road fails to live up to expectations: not only do they find themselves running around in circles, but they also never become romantically involved with each other. Moreover, they later make an unexpected discovery: their radical act did not have the consequences they had imagined. The film avoids creating any emotional connection between the viewer and the characters: the aim of the narrative is to keep them at arm’s length in order to challenge the road movie genre. The link with the 70s tradition is clear, but is subverted by the situationism of the 90s. The characters are not changed by their experience: they are simply human anti-heroes who are far too human. Shot in the Everglades district (a literal swampland or “River of Grass”, the local name for Everglades) in the state of Florida, the film was a critical success. It was selected for the Sundance Film Festival and Berlin International Festival and nominated for various Independent Spirit Awards.