COMING SOON

With Solitaire, I wanted to explore the broken promise of the American Dream and the quiet ruins it leaves behind. In forgotten towns across the U.S., rusted signs and boarded windows mark what was once hope. Shot in rural Utah with a local cast and crew, the film uses the form of a crime drama to reveal a more intimate story: how ordinary people bear the cost of a dream that has been sold, repackaged, and hollowed out.

In a society obsessed with success and afraid of failure, Solitaire looks at the quiet desperation beneath that fear. What do we sacrifice to appear in control? The themes of grief, power, and survival echo in small towns everywhere, not just in America.

Narratively, I drew inspiration from Hamlet, a son returning to a home he no longer recognizes. Like the Prince of Denmark, Max faces a legacy that has been hijacked by his uncle, who is now seated at the throne. But where Hamlet explored rot from within, in Solitaire the corruption is total, woven into the landscape itself. Stylistically, I drew from Cassavetes’ emotional honesty, the haunting decay of The Last Picture Show, and the lingering emotional pulse of Wong Kar-wai and David Lynch.

There is no nostalgia in Solitaire—only what remains when illusion fades and survival is all that’s left.