Directed with lean efficiency and a mean streak a mile wide, Cop Car is an extra-tight B-movie made all the more potent because of its exacting sense of logic. The final moments do stretch credibility, but, within its own realm, and considering all that has come before it, I bought into it from moment one. This is a delightfully wicked little film, evoking Eric Red’s cult classic Cohen and Tate in more than one spot (child endangerment, oh my!), and featuring two child performances from James Freedson-Jackson and Hays Wellford that hit all the right notes of innocence, foolhardiness, and unearned confidence. The narrative hinges on the idea that the two boys have run away from home one summer’s day, and while they trek through the open plains of New Mexico, they come across a seemingly abandoned cop car in the middle of a field, which they proceed to take out for a joyride, after, rather humorously, giving themselves a tutorial on driving. The naïve youngsters then get a rude awakening when a psychotic sheriff, played with a wonderful glint of desperate cruelty in his eyes by Kevin Bacon, informs them that he’d like his car back, and to not look in the trunk. I’m not saying anything more, because what this film does for 90 minutes is turn the screws fast and hard, never allowing you to think too hard about what’s been occurring, but when you do stop to think about the events of the plot, you can’t help but admire the bracing sense of forward momentum combined with a general air of unpredictability and a fantastic sense of tension. Produced, co-written, and directed with low-budget panache by Jon Watts (about to be sucked into the Marvel/Spiderman mess), the film comes across as a darkly comedic yet starkly violent thriller in the vein of an early Coen brothers effort; I love it when tones are mixed up and Cop Car certainly enjoys sadism with a side order of ironic humor. The crisp and clean widescreen photography by dual cinematographers Matthew J. Lloyd and Larkin Seiple maximizes space and geography to an unsettling degree, which creates a dangerous and menacing atmosphere right from the start. Cop Car is every 10 year old boy’s dream AND nightmare, all in one, and I’d like to think that both Freedson-Jackson and Wellford were given a serious talking-too regarding make believe vs. reality. There are some bits with the kids handling loaded weapons that are flinch-inducing, and the sense of terror that overcomes the two protagonists in the final act is nearly unrelenting. This is a refreshingly unpretentious, casually stylish and totally transgressive little thriller that should delight fans of this genre to no end.
Podcasting Them Softly 