The Rambler (film)

The Rambler is a 2013 American independent horror film written and directed by Calvin Reeder.

The film's narrative concerns a mysterious loner known only as the Rambler, played by Dermot Mulroney.

A man is released from jail after a four-year sentence. He returns home to his wife Cheryl but after they argue, she reveals that she is pregnant to another man. The man sets out hitch-hiking to join his brother on his ranch. Along the way, the man falls in with a bunch of strange characters including Dale, who places the man into a series of bare-knuckle fights. The man also meets a scientist who is carrying two mummies and demonstrates a device that can read people’s dreams but instead causes the heads of everybody he attaches it, to explode.^[1]

• Dermot Mulroney as The Rambler
• Lindsay Pulsipher as The Girl
• Natasha Lyonne as Cheryl
• James Cady as The Scientist

The Rambler was premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, and subsequently screened within such festivals as South by Southwest and Maryland Film Festival.

The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray by Lionsgate and Starz/Anchor Bay on June 25, 2013.^[2]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 33% based on 12 reviews, with a weighted average rating of 5.8/10.^[3] On Metacritic, which assigns a rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 32 out of 100, based on 6 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".^[4]

Amy Nicholson from LA Times gave the film a negative review, writing "What all of this means is, frankly, nothing. But it's a handsome nothing, at least until you get sick of the screaming."^[5] Justin Lowe from The Hollywood Reporter called the film "Misguided exercise in genre fetishism", criticizing the film's plot, cheap special-effects, and performances.^[6] Drew Hunt from Slant Magazine gave the film a positive review, writing, "Like Inland Empire, essentially a three-hour reel of David Lynch’s nightmares, the film is anchored in the sort of dream logic that may only make complete sense to its creator. Reeder’s dogged refusal to allow even the smallest semblance of standard movie comforts—likeable characters, narrative logic, easily identifiable themes—to worm their way into the film may be hubristic, but by that same token, it’s refreshing and revitalizing to watch someone assertively rattle the cages of cinematic form. After all, there’s more than one way to tell a story."^[7]

• The Rambler at IMDb
• The Rambler at Metacritic
• The Rambler at Rotten Tomatoes