But they pay a high price, and not just for gasoline. The backbreaking commute saps the commuter of energy. The stress exacts a heavy toll on marriages, and one mother says that the rate of child abuse is higher there than in Los Angeles. Antelope Valley, it turns out, may not be the paradise everyone thought it was. There's talk of gang activity and gunfire in the night and community arguments over low-income housing.
Feelings gradually emerge.
By the time the film ends, Cool's seemingly benign shots of construction equipment and housing developments and shopping malls have taken on a distinctly sinister cast. The pursuit of the American Dream sometimes leads to uneasy sleep. Hand-held shots from a moving car are emblematic, establishing a feel for the setting. Prompted by Cool, who appears on camera and whose questions are often heard on the soundtrack, they muse on the American dream and on how material values, like desiring a beautiful home, conflict with more spiritual concerns such as keeping a family together. The fact is, these people are desperate to leave Antelope Valley, to escape just as others once fled the inner city.