Borrego snuck up on me and surprised me. It’s a dusty, dry, dehydrated crime thriller that has pacing that should have bored me, but didn’t. I was engaged with the story and the characters enough that the slow spots were still compelling. Your result may vary.

The film stars Lucy Hale as a botanist investigating an invasive plant in the American southwest when she witnesses a small aircraft crash. She rushes to help only to be taken hostage by a desperate drug runner who survived. Now she’s forced to march across the desert, saddled with a backpack full of drugs and very little water.

This is in a genre I’m tentatively calling dust noire… crime thrillers set usually in the blazing sunshine of the desert. This film shares some DNA – though is inferior to – other films like Hell or High Water, No Country for Old Men, and Sicario. Don’t get me wrong… those are all far superior but this shares the same crime-addled sun blistering, dry, desiccated feel as them.

It’s nice to see Lucy Hale in a more adult/serious role, outside of the horror or romance genre. She’s good here and she’s joined by a good cast. The guy who kidnaps her is an interesting character himself… desperate but somehow polite without being particularly nice. You can see he’s in over his head. A local sheriff and his spunky daughter are looking for them and I rather liked the relationship Hale’s character has with the daughter.

I was surprised I liked this as much as I did. It’s not earth-shattering but I think it works as an example of genre filmmaking.

Score: 81