The meaning of life, the mysteries of mortality and the joys of karaoke strip bars are just a few of the profound subjects examined in John Ryman’s hypnotic black comedy. When twenty-something Joe (Mackenzie Astin) discovers that he’s got just weeks to live, he goes in search of his true love (Jennifer Morrison), a girl he knew in sixth grade. Alone and armed with a packet of prescription lollipops, Joe sets out on a surreal road trip that takes him from the bleak, beautiful Southwest desert to the sleazy streets of New Orleans. Along the way he comes face to face with a cast of oddballs that include a religious-cult escapee (John Ales), a novice stripper (Rachel Wilson) and an insane ventriloquist-hitchhiker (Tenacious D’s Kyle Gass). Writer-director Ryman constructs an off-center world filled with wild, unsettling visions of a not-too-distant future as he skillfully balances absurd moments of fantasy with touching, true revelations about the power of emotional connections.

-from the 2001 Mill Valley Film Festival catalogue