The Playlist:
Sometimes hardship can bring friends together, and sometimes it can turn them into completely unrecognizable people. So it goes for “Scenic Route,” a micro-budget indie that attempts to refashion two known entities in Josh Duhamel and Dan Fogler into interesting onscreen personas after the former has come across as a listless action figure in loud blockbusters, and the latter a loud, disruptive presence in broad comedies. It’s a credit to the film that we discover the hidden depths inside both actors, though this drastic revision comes with being stuck in the desert for an hour and a half. We learn more about these two performers, but it’s not necessarily worth the effort expended. In other words, moviegoers will not be more drawn to Duhamel and Fogler, but it’s worth noting that both are permitted to become something else.
THR:
After playing it safe in Nicholas Sparks weepie Safe Haven, Josh Duhamel lets it all hang out in Scenic Route, a new indie thriller premiering on Friday at the South by Southwest Film Festival, for which he was required to sport a mohawk.
"I was excited about [shaving my head]," Duhamel tells The Hollywood Reporter at the Driskill Hotel shortly before the film's SXSW premiere. "The whole script was one of those things that I was looking for for a very long time, and the mohawk was just the icing on the cake. I would recommend one to anybody, because it makes you feel cool."
