GODMOTHER

Romantic desert oasis weekend trip tip #47: Nothing good will happen when your first vacation jam is Eric Carmen’s yacht rock standard "Make Me Lose Control." Colby, a formulaic debonair fintech-type dude, has meticulously planned the perfect couples' weekend at a Pueblo Revival-style home in the New Mexico high desert for his girlfriend, Theo. But all his strategizing gets put on the sideline once Theo invites her free-spirited sister Katie, fresh off a painful breakup.

As if the clashing personalities between Colby and Katie weren't enough for Theo, the trio's rental home hosts, the seemingly gracious Martinsons, played by horror legends Dee Wallace and Bruce Davison, harbor unsettling motives for the fate of the couple. Trapped between Colby's safe and controlling predictability and Katie's reckless spontaneity, Theo finds herself mediating her loved ones' tensions while the isolated desert retreat is gestating something increasingly strange and devilish.

Spending a few holidays with my family under the spell of Las Cruces’s Organ Mountains and the beautiful Mesilla Valley, I can understand why director John Veron chose this enchanting and mystical place as the setting for his debut film. Co-written with gaming personality Alanah Pearce and executive produced with the guidance of streaming superstar Seán McLoughlin (Jacksepticeye), GODMOTHER explores the compromises we make for love and identity. The film also presents a thoughtful contrast between older generations' couple expectations and more contemporary relationship goals. For Theo and the audience, in the words of the late Eric Carmen, this nightmarish desert retreat will "take you over the edge, make you lose control." (RAFAEL RODRIGUEZ)