Review of Bone Tomahawk (2015) by Compi24 — 12 Jun 2019

A film I was really looking forward to that ended up disappointing for reasons I didn't quite expect. One of the things I've always heard about writer/director S. Craig Zahler's films is that they're always impeccably written, with a lot of the character and plotting work feeling as authentic as possible.

This couldn't be more true in "Bone Tomahawk's" case. The characters all feel as textured and as fleshed out as can be, featuring specific quirks, worldviews, and ways of speaking that really help add to the overall sense of realism in the film.

Also operating on the keyword "realism" is the narrative, which unfurls itself at a pace and fashion that's cautious, but also exhilaratingly unpredictable. So where do things go wrong for me? Well, this is a very unique film in terms of style.

Surprisingly so, in fact. There's little to no score, a mostly refreshing lack of standard editing and blocking techniques, and very little actual goings-on until the climactic final act. This hyperrealistic flavor of cinematic filmmaking really makes the scenes where things are transpiring feel utterly thrilling and unpredictable, with the deemphasis of music and traditional editing techniques really putting you in a unique place as an audience member.

But, again, once that's coupled with the tremendous amount of downtime and traveling scenes we have to witness, this sort of style can make for some rather potent spells of sluggishness. It's a completely legitimate and even momentarily brilliant first effort, but I'm more excited to see how this filmmaker grows from this admittedly imperfect experience.