Film

The Salton Sea

Name: The Salton Sea
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Released: 2002
Cast: Val Kilmer, Vincent D'Onofrio, Adam Goldberg, Luis Guzmán, Doug Hutchison

Film noir

The Salton Sea is a baroque neo-noir about grief, addiction and double lives in the methamphetamine underworld. Val Kilmer gives a performance of unsettling intensity as a man spiralling through a criminal network where every alliance corrodes. It's hallucinatory and cruel, never quite settling into predictable patterns—a film that trusts you to stay lost.

TMDb rating

3.3

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like crime stories where identity is slippery and the mood of a sun-bleached, drug-hazed noir matters as much as the plot, and you don't mind being a little lost on purpose.

Skip it if you need the plot to stay tidy; it loops through drugs, double lives and a meandering mystery, and its hallucinatory drift can feel like a long detour rather than a destination.

What it asks of you: Around 103 minutes of patient, dreamlike wandering with plenty of narration and jagged editing, so it rewards steady attention more than a clear forward line.

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