The film centers on a coming-of-age story interwoven with an oddball murder mystery, set in a secluded desert community located in northwest Nevada. The narrative features unusual characters inhabiting this desolate landscape, including a mechanic who rejects materialism (played by Richard Masur), contrasted with a nervous shop owner portrayed by Susan Tyrrell. Matt Frewer and Drew Barrymore have a good rapport as a father and daughter experiencing familiar family conflicts while clearly caring for one another. A remote-controlled vehicle appears, echoing the humorous device from Clint Eastwood’s “The Dead Pool,” which had come out just before this film. Drew Barrymore was thirteen and a half years old during filming in August of 1988—production began on July 25th—and she's clearly maturing into a lovely young woman, though perhaps still quite young for the part. Karen Austin, who was thirty-two at the time of shooting, is striking, as is Jennifer Tilly, nearly twenty-nine; however, their parts are unfortunately brief. Nine years later, “Desert Blue” took elements of this film’s storyline—excluding the murder mystery component—and adapted them into a more ordinary narrative, replacing an abandoned building with a foreboding cola factory. This movie, in contrast, occasionally veers into overly dramatic thriller sequences that some viewers might find jarring. The runtime is 1 hour and 29 minutes, and filming took place primarily in northwest Nevada, specifically Gerlach—a drive of two and a half hours northeast of Lake Tahoe—as well as American Flats (where the cement structure is located), near Virginia City. Carson City was also used for some scenes. GRADE: B

Source on TMDB