'All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt' Longs for Some Conventional Approaches
Director Raven Jackson comes through with an effective feature debut in a film about life, loss, nature, and family that spans multiple decades. All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt isn't a traditional narrative film with a beginning, middle, and end. What it is instead is a visually poetic feature that doesn't settle for the usual aesthetics of a narrative film. Much of the picture emphasizes touch. Hands touching water, dirt, and each other. Hands play a vital role in an unconventional piece that, depending on the audience member, will be moving or achingly boring.
The film begins with young Mack (Kaylee Nicole Johnson) fishing with her father. We don't see the character's faces; instead, the camera focuses on their hands. From reeling the fish in, to petting it when it's gasping for air, the film is saying something about the fragility of life. To breathe is to be alive, but to survive is to take life. We must eat to survive. That survival (if you're not vegan) is dependent on hunting and gathering. In rural Mississippi, fishing is a large aspect attached to living. With so many fish in the water, it's easy to use them as a means to feed a family. Pathos to the dying fish and loss is drawn.
At one point, there's a death in the family that follows the dying fish. The scene of loss is deeply effective as the grandmother of Mack's family is holding Mack's hand, telling her that her mother will miss her very much and is with God now. The camera goes from Grandma's hands holding Mack's to a tight shot of Grandma informing her grandchildren that their mother has passed. Or at least I think it's the mother.
Although the film stylistically has a unique voice, it comes at the price of making it clear who is who. If you're not listening carefully to a character's name drop, you could get lost in who you're watching in the movie. Although I get that the film wants to make everything about life a collection of memories resembling the things and those we touch, it doesn't make it clear who the characters are touching, which causes a disconnect in the material.
The experience the film is trying to resemble can be frustrating when we don't know who we're connecting with. Furthermore, Raven Jackson refuses to insert time-stamped years like 1980, for example, to make us understand what period we're supposed to be in. A simple title would greatly strengthen an intentionally puzzling narrative. To Jackson, it's not important what year it is or what character we're following, as it's more about what the people on screen are reacting to. That's all well and good, but I don't get the connection to what I'm feeling, as I barely understand who the movie is following.
Long, artsy shots of hands are effective only to a certain point. After a while, the movie's lyricism loses its luster in a collection of close shots that could have more focus on the character's faces instead of their hands. The movie is meant to be obscure, but its obscurity comes at the price of connectivity. We see characters hugging each other while crying, and there are the occasional closeups of faces. Even with that major complaint, there's no denying the impact the film leaves. Many viewers will draw comparisons to this movie with a Terrence Malick film as Malick's movies are a collection of memories compiled with whispy narrations to make you feel like you're in a dream.
Unlike a Malick film, there are no voices to narrate the story. Instead, the movie relies heavily on sound to communicate emotions. Mississippi is filled with cicadas, thunderstorms, and dripping water. It's so quiet; it's serene. The film itself, if you let it wash over you, is a peaceful, calming experience and one that should be seen on a big screen or at least a home theater with full surround sound. All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt is an impressive debut from a director who's also a poet. The visual poetry Raven Jackson puts on screen is memorable. If only it had a little more clarity in its characters, it could be an even stronger film.
