Camino Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Camino Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 16, 2021

There have been a number of well remembered and well received films that have proffered stories about journalists, often photojournalists, who find themselves in both the figurative and literal crosshairs as they attempt to cover some sort of political uprising or something similar. Under Fire, The Killing Fields and Salvador all appeared within just a few years of each other in the mid-eighties and seemed to suggest that there was almost a new kind of subgenre being formulated, though the fact that Camino, which kinda sorta seems (at least for a while) to be about a photojournalist in similar straits didn't arrive on the scene until 2015, which itself may seem to suggest that any perceived subgenre may still be establishing itself over a long period of time. That said, Camino turns out to be more of an almost horror tinged survival tale as it documents the trials and tribulations of award winning photographer Avery Taggert (Zoë Bell), who is heard on the soundtrack receiving some kind of major award for her work as the film opens. This audio accompanies an opening sequence which seems to be foreshadowing what she's about to go through, and it frankly looks like trouble. After this slightly disjunctive opening, the film segues to an after party following the award where Avery doesn't seem especially enthused about the celebration (and a deleted scene included on this disc is even more overt in that regard). After a bit more pre-credits drama, she only perhaps a bit unwillingly forges ahead with her career by agreeing to accompany some ostensible missionaries about to embark on a trip to Colombia to do "good work". The truth of course turns out to be somewhat more sinister, which is where the survival games begin.

The plotting of Camino is frankly not especially artful, though suffice it to say that "head" missionary Guillermo (Nacho Vigalondo, kind of interestingly an Oscar nominee in the Best Live Action Short category from 2005) may have more on his mind than spreading any supposed "good news" to the natives. When Avery discovers this subterfuge, that makes her the target of Guillermo's nefarious villainy, and a cat and mouse game in the jungles of Colombia (and/or Hawaii, where the film was actually shot) ensues. What probably energizes Camino more than its fitful narrative, which tends to work in fits and starts, with long interstitial info downloads interspersed with more visceral action elements, is the lead performance of Zoë Bell, here given a bit more of an opportunity to strut her acting stuff after a career which has offered her some pretty high profile work as a stuntwoman. Bell's physicality is one of the undeniable strengths of Camino, which may then beg the question as to why the film keeps stopping to explain things instead of focusing on Avery's predicament.

One of the things that is disclosed in some of the rather appealing supplements included on this disc as bonus features is the fact that longtime collaborators director Josh C. Waller and screenwriter Daniel Noah almost stumbled into this production when another one of their films had the kibosh put on it just as filming was due to start. The two reached out to some potential financiers for another project, and when Noah went to sign the contract on a Friday (which was coincidentally Halloween), he was surprised to see these money providers assumed there was already a finished screenplay ready (which there wasn't), and that it needed to be seen by the following Monday. Noah kind of hilariously relays an anecdote about taking his kids out trick or treating, and then coming home and locking himself in a room for the weekend to pound out a screenplay. As Noah himself states, that means if you love the film, you're going to think his work was amazing, and that if you don't like the film, the conditions under which it was written may help to explain that less than favorable opinion.

In that regard, Camino has unusual pluses, especially since it was evidently written under duress, though more jaded analysts may feel like maybe a few more days at the keyboard might have helped fashion a more consistent tone. Noah obviously wanted to have a group of characters unraveling in an isolated setting, but he perhaps spends a bit too much time trying to provide necessary backstories for each individual, when the ultimate focus here is really squarely on Avery, who is given more than enough context and who is brought memorably to life (and near death) by Bell.

Camino Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Camino is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of the MVD Marquee Collection, an imprint of MVD Visual, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The closing credits offer an Arri logo, and I'm assuming the DI was finished at 2K. Aside from one curious stylistic conceit which I assume was an intentional decision, this is a really nicely detailed and problem free presentation. Both the introductory "big city" material (which is brief) and then the longer sequences set in the jungle provide nice opportunities for fine detail on everything from fabrics to, in the latter scenes, lots of foliage. Photos that Avery either has taken or is supposedly taking are occasionally offered as striking black and white stills, as can be seen in some of the screenshots I've uploaded to accompany this review. Contrast and gray scale in these interstitials is typically excellently rendered. The one questionable element, at least to my eyes, is both the brief introductory sequence and then a much a longer swath that starts at around the one hour mark where what I assume is day for night material has been graded toward grays with a fair amount of desaturation as well. That leads to a generally murky appearance where fine detail levels pretty noticeably deflate.

Camino Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Camino has an unusually intense soundtrack which is well presented in either DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 or LPCM 2.0. I definitely advise those with surround systems to choose that iteration, as both the ambient environmental effects in the jungle scenes as well as Kreng's propulsive score are significantly opened up in that version. There is some Spanish spoken here (our specs above only allow for one primary audio language), and there are optional English subtitles for those moments. Dialogue in both languages is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. More optional English and French subtitles for the entire feature are also available.

Camino Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Camino Behind the Scenes Part 1: The Shoot (HD; 11:17) is the first of three interlinked featurettes which offer some good interviews and lots of candid footage, and whose focus is disclosed in the title, at least for the first two.


• Camino Behind the Scenes Part 2: The Fights (HD; 7:22)


• Camino Behind the Scenes Part 3: Electro-Jungle-Western (HD; 9:21) looks at music, cinematography and editing.


• Camino Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Promo (HD; 3:09)


• Trailers include Camino Theatrical Trailer (HD; 2:18) and Camino International Trailer (HD; 2:00)

Camino Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Fans of either Shirley MacLaine or cult television series may recall that MacLaine herself played a crusading photojournalist in her short-lived series Shirley's World, a show which was so half baked some critics at the time said it was somehow responsible in that often head scratching showbiz way for denying MacLaine a probably well deserved Academy Award nomination for Desperate Characters, a generally hugely acclaimed film which premiered during the series' brief broadcast run, but which nevertheless ran head long into the bad press already circulating for the television series. The fact that Shirley's World struggled pretty mightily to provide stories involving a female photojournalist (admittedly in a supposedly comic setting a lot of the time) may indicate that Camino had some of the same hurdles to overcome, but the real problem with this film is not the character of Avery or even what she has to go through in the wild, but all the time given to a number of real or perceived detours, as the film attempts to flesh out the supporting characters. Still, this is an often interesting film and Bell emerges as a real presence. Technical merits generally solid, and the array of supplements enjoyable. Recommended.