Film

Gerry

Gerry is a glacially paced existential odyssey about two men lost in the desert, waiting for nothing in particular to happen. Gus Van Sant's film is deliberately austere—long static shots, minimal dialogue, the landscape as protagonist. It's meditative, punishing, and entirely uninterested in conventional narrative satisfaction. For patient viewers willing to sit with discomfort and strangeness.

TMDb rating3.1

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you are drawn to slow, wordless films where landscape and silence carry the story, and you don't mind being left alone with a long stretch of a nearly empty plot.

Skip it if you want dialogue to drive things forward or a clear plot with steady momentum; long stretches here pass with little said and almost nothing happening on screen.

What it asks of you: Around ninety minutes of patience, with long, unhurried takes that linger on walking and heat, so you have to settle into its rhythm rather than wait for it to hand you things.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Stalker1979

Tarkovsky's spiritual masterpiece about a guide leading two men through a mysterious zone. Like Gerry, it moves at its own glacial pace, treating landscape and silence as subjects worthy of extended contemplation. Hypnotic.

But It's 163 minutes long and nothing dramatic happens. If you need plot momentum or character revelation, this will feel like punishment.

Stalker poster

The Turin Horse2011

Béla Tarr's final film, another slow-burn meditation on two figures moving through grey, repetitive landscapes. Shares Gerry's refusal to explain or resolve, the sense that meaning dissolves rather than accumulates. Profoundly strange.

But It's bleaker and more abrasive than Gerry, with almost no conventional charm. The repetition becomes genuinely grinding.

The Turin Horse poster

My Own Private Idaho1991

Gus Van Sant's earlier masterwork about two young men drifting through the American West. Same director, same themes of aimlessness and fractured companionship, but with more emotional rawness and River Phoenix's magnetic presence.

But The first half is clearer narratively; if you come to Gerry wanting this, you'll be disappointed by how much less accommodating it is.

My Own Private Idaho poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Gerry

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Werckmeister Harmonies2001

Both films locate spiritual or metaphysical crisis in apparently empty observation. They trust the viewer to feel what's withheld.

Another Béla Tarr vision of dissolution and slowness, but built around a Hungarian port town where a whale appears and social order collapses. Shares Gerry's commitment to static shots and meaningful emptiness, but within dense social fabric rather than wilderness.

But Three hours, black and white, minimal plot, dialogue in Hungarian. About as far from accessible as cinema gets.

Werckmeister Harmonies poster
More like this (7)

Paris, Texas1984

Wim Wenders' devastating study of a man re-entering a world he doesn't fit into. Patient, elliptical, and wholly concerned with what's left unsaid. Shot beautifully in desert and parking lots, asking what connection even means.

But Very slow. The emotional weight lands quietly; if you're expecting drama rather than feeling, you'll miss it.

Paris, Texas poster

Wings of Desire1987

Wenders again: angels watching over a divided Berlin. Contemplative, poetic, and beautifully lit. Like Gerry, it prioritizes mood and observation over plot, but with more transcendent beauty.

But The second half loses focus. If you're drawn to Gerry's severity, this reaches for something more sentimental.

Wings of Desire poster

The Passenger1975

Antonioni's film about a man who assumes another identity and travels through Spain and Africa. Existential, visually stunning, and fundamentally concerned with disconnection from meaning. Jack Nicholson gives a masterclass in restraint.

But Deliberately oblique. Meaning is withheld rather than earned, which frustrates viewers looking for psychological depth.

The Passenger poster

Rope1948

Hitchcock's real-time chamber piece about two men immediately after a murder. Claustrophobic and propulsive—the opposite temperature from Gerry, but with the same structural commitment to watching rather than cutting away.

But Very theatrical and stagey. If you want naturalism, you won't find it here.

Rope poster

American Honey2016

Andrea Arnold's three-hour roadside odyssey through America with drifters and magazine-sellers. Meandering, visually precise, and interested in the strange grace of aimless lives. Very much in Gerry's lineage.

But Exhausting. The length and repetitive structure deliberately mirror the emptiness of the characters' lives, which can feel oppressive.

American Honey poster

The Great Silence1968

Both use harsh landscape and minimal dialogue to strip away everything except what matters. Both ask what two men owe each other when words fail.

Sergio Corbucci's revisionist Western: a mute gunslinger tracking a bounty killer through snowy mountains. Stark, violent, visually stunning. Where Gerry uses desert emptiness as philosophy, this uses landscape as a stage for moral reckoning.

But Brutally cold and violent. The philosophical emptiness serves a hard genre narrative, which some find reductive.

The Great Silence poster

A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence2014

Both trust stillness and watching over explanation. Both use the refusal to resolve as the entire point. But Andersson finds dark comedy in what Van Sant finds tragedy in.

Roy Andersson's deadpan Swedish comedy about life's small humiliations, shot in long, carefully composed takes with almost nothing happening. Absurdist and profound. Like Gerry's patience and silence, but using black comedy instead of dread.

But The humor is extremely dry and the narrative barely exists. If you need emotional payoff or laughter to feel rewarded, this is infuriating.

A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence poster

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