WARNING: This article contains spoilers and references to suicide. Reader discretion is advised.

“Crystal Cross” is the directorial debut of Richie James Follin, and tells the story of James (Richie James Follin) and Dottie (Rubyrose Hill) who go on a sudden road trip to California.

James is suicidal after accidentally killing his daughter in a drunk driving accident and is going to California to hopefully have doctor-asissted suicide. Dottie is an aspiring christian musician who breaks into his car to escape her ex-boyfriend (Lukas Haas). She chose James because she thinks he looks like Jesus and takes it as a sign from God.

The film shows the two of them getting closer together throughout this road trip as they visit different places across America. The film was initially four hours long and several scenes had to be cut down into a montage to achieve the 88 minute runtime.

The best part of the movie by far is the chemistry between the two main characters. They’re very believable as friends eventually turned lovers despite several opposing beliefs about the nature of the world and God.

The original actress for Dottie dropped out of the film two weeks before shooting began. Follin happened to meet Hill while he was getting ice cream with his daughter at a place she was working at. It’s incredible that they managed to develop such great chemistry over the course of the shoots given the circumstances.

The film is quite funny as well. It has a more casual style of comedy where there isn’t a joke every five minutes but when there is one it comes up naturally like something out of a real conversation.

There’s a scene where Dottie and James are lying in some grass and Dottie mentions that her sister was bit by a snake in grass like this and died. James asks if it was because of the snake bite, and Dottie in a very deadpan way says “no she died from cancer,” which got a laugh out of the entire theater.

Many of the things Dottie says throughout the movie about Christianity are things Follin heard when he was a child going to different Christian and Catholic schools. Follin said that he wrote Dottie to be a good representation of Christians as she’s a good person at heart and tries to help James whenever she can.

The movie was shot on a $60,000 budget, with most of that going toward renting equipment and the car used in the movie. During the Q&A, Follin said that he would shoot around 50 takes of every scene because he knew they would likely not be coming back for reshoots. Some of the movie did have to be reshot though, as a few hard drives full of footage got corrupted.

Before directing, Follin made music which ended up being used in “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and “The Science of Sleep.” Likewise, he also made the music for this movie.

The songs sound great, with the highlight being the film’s namesake “Crystal Cross,” Dottie writes it near the end of the movie as a reflection on her love for James. Follin said he is hoping to make some of the film’s budget back in record sales and streaming revenue when the soundtrack releases.

“Crystal Cross” is a testament to the tenacity of indie filmmaking and is worth checking out. The movie doesn’t have an official release date yet, but Follin said he’s planning on doing an arthouse release in the near future.