‘Traveling Light’ Review: Stuck in Close Quarters, Staving Off Covid and Boredom

Shot during the pandemic and set on May 30, 2020 — just a few days after the death of George Floyd during an arrest by the Minneapolis Police Department — “Traveling Light” is an experimental attempt at social commentary that fails to provide any insight, emotion or even entertainment of the most basic kind.

Nearly a year after its weird-fit premiere at genre-focused Beyond Fest in Los Angeles, this scrappy Covid-era quickie from eclectic director Bernard Rose (who made the original “Candyman”) opens today in New York and Seattle, with other cities to follow.It seems Rose was aiming for a loose riff on “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie,” focusing on a gathering in the Hollywood Hills of the followers of a self-proclaimed guru/prophet (Danny Huston), where everyone drinks a concoction spiked with an unnamed hallucinogenic and eventually line-dances while chanting “Hare Hare,” even though there isn’t a single Hare Krishna in sight.

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