An off-key, jazzy riff wafts over the image of Danny Parker (Val Kilmer) drooping on the floor, playing the trumpet, surrounded by big stacks of cash; all are engulfed in flame. Or maybe he is musician Tom Van Allen. He is no longer sure. In classic noir style, his voice-over begins at the beginning as we watch the dismal end. Unexpectedly, through the abrupt editing used throughout the film, we are bounced into a little lesson in the history of crystal meth, the drug of choice among this LA group of lost souls.

Tom/ Danny may be the film noir hero he imagines he is. An ordinary guy caught up in a nightmare world when fate leads him and his ladylove (Chandra West) to the wrong place at the wrong time, with tragic results. He seems too nice a guy¾talkative and amicable¾to fit the stereotype of burned out user and abuser. How is he able to survive in this world, especially as a renegade who succeeds as a lone ranger where the clever FBI team has failed? In fact there is so much cheery good humor around best friend Jimmy and the gang, at least in their more lucid moments, we almost think it isn't so bad. Then we are jolted into reality, like Peter is, as he suddenly remembers why he wound up living this drug induced party low life. He is there as an avenger for his terrible loss, or is it to seek anesthesia? He tells himself he wants to make a little bit of difference in the world, on the good guys' side. Sometimes it's just a little hard to tell who the good guys are in this milieu. Sometimes it isn't. Enter Pooh Bear (Vincent D'Onofrio), as the deliciously depraved sociopath, top-dog dealer, whose nose has literally been eaten away by coke so he wears a plastic one, sometimes crookedly. He almost steals the film with his portrayal of perversity.

Well written by Tony Gayton (Murder by Numbers), with enough curves to keep us guessing. Is the cop dirty? Who is following Danny in the silver car? Moreover, the visual style complements the unreality of the substance…no pun intended. One moment there is a hellish gritiness in the streets and filthy apartments; the next there is a Honeymooners full moon rising. Director D. J. Caruso pulls it all together.

That the Danny Parker/Tom Van Allen character doesn't exactly ring true doesn't do much to diminish the fascination because he sustains the noir elements that make the genre work. Kilmer is no less believable than Robert Mitchum, John Garfield or Alan Ladd in similar roles and that never stood in the way of enjoying those dark, juicy 1940's classics. The Salton Sea is a bit more in the vein of Fargo and Pulp Fiction with its ridiculous violence. These are not folks you want to hang around with but the black humor is hilarious. Without the moments of comic relief, the unrelenting bleakness would be unbearable. And in real life, there may be the sort of naïve good hearted guys like Jimmy who, though smacked out much of the time, are still capable of connecting to another human, even with the wounds it inflicts.

Val Kilmer as Danny Parker/Tom VanAllen	Vincent D'Onofrio as Pooh Bear
Luis Guzman as Quincey	Peter Sarsgaard as Jimmy the Finn
Director: D.J. Caruso	Anthony LaPaglia as Garcetti