''Tyger Tyger'' is a 2021 pandemic thriller written and directed by Kerry Mondragon. It stars Dylan Sprouse, Sam Quartin, Nekhebet Kum Juch, Thea Sofie Loch Naess, Craig Stark, Eden Anne Brolin, Alma Martinez, and Max Madsen. Filmed on location in Southern California’s

Slab City Slab City, also called The Slabs, is an unincorporated, off-the-grid alternative lifestyle community consisting largely of Snowbird (person), snowbirds in the Salton Trough area of the Sonoran Desert, in Imperial County, California. It took its ...

and Bombay Beach, the film gathered notoriety because it portrays a mysterious pandemic, yet was filmed just before the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

begun.

Plot

An outlaw woman and her gang robs a pharmacy of its pandemic meds in order to distribute the meds in an anarchic Free City in the Southern California Desert. During her escape, she kidnaps a junkie and they fall in love on the lam, finding themselves trapped in the fringe lands of a psychedelic city beyond the law.

Cast

Production

The film was written by Mondragon based on his own experiences with drugs. He wrote it in two weeks, after having spent some time in the encampments of Slab City, California. Tyger Tyger was filmed at

, an anarchic off the grid squatter city build on an abandoned military base in the Sonoran Desert and populated by "

anarchists Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or hierarchy, primarily targeting the state and capitalism. Anarchism advocates for the replacement of the state w ...

, artists, drug addicts, eccentrics, outcasts, retirees, and the impoverished." Filmed on an ultra-low budget, it has been nevertheless been compared to ''

Nomadland ''Nomadland'' is a 2020 American drama film written, produced, edited and directed by Chloé Zhao. Based on the 2017 nonfiction book '' Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century'' by Jessica Bruder, it stars Frances McDormand a ...

'' since it features performances by non-actors in their natural environments.

Release

On February 26, 2021, the film received a limited theatrical release and as

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos, television shows and films Digital distribution, digitally on request. These multimedia are accessed without a traditional video playback device and a typica ...

the same day.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

the film has an approval rating of 10% average rating of 3.9/10 based on reviews from 10 critics.

Hollywood Insider ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cult ...

called it "a stunning ode to art". '' Brazilian Press'' saw the film as Mondragon's rise as an auteur. Leslie Felperin of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' commented that, "(T)he film-makers are lucky poor old William Blake’s work is out of copyright, otherwise his heirs (were any to be found) would have a good reason to sue." Peter Sobczynski of RogerEbert.com called it a "boring, incoherent mess". Alex Saveliev of

Film Threat ''Film Threat'' is an American online film review publication, and earlier, a national magazine that focused primarily on independent film, although it also reviewed videos and DVDs of mainstream films, as well as Hollywood movies in theaters. ...

wrote: "If you enjoy being sober around your trippin’ buddies, then Tyger Tyger may be for you, but you’re much more likely to feel left out."

References

Sources

* * *
Movie Review: 'TYGER TYGER' (2021) A Unique Modern Age Western-Drama

How Kerry Mondragon Confronted Personal Demons To Make Fantasy Thriller 'Tyger Tyger'

Dylan Sprouse on 'Tyger Tyger,' Taking Back Agency, Learning Mandarin, & More

External links

* {{IMDB title, id=8787632, title=Tyger Tyger 2021 films Psychedelic films 2021 directorial debut films Films about infectious diseases