Review of Cold in July (2014) by Brett B — 19 Nov 2016

COLD IN JULY is one of the most surprising crime dramas I've seen in a long time. It's a wonderfully introspective character piece that doubles as a dynamite thriller, complete with a trio of fantastic performances and a truly inventive narrative that, as the old cliche goes, keeps you guessing.

This is a broodingly intense film with storyline turns that can't be predicted; the narrative is always shifting in interesting ways, and it's the sort of movie that can make you feel like you're watching a kind of buddy flick one minute, then sucker punch you the next.

This makes for an ultra-engaging viewing experience, but not a gimmicky one, either; the way the plot forces you to reconsider how you feel about characters and their motivations feels completely earned, and are in service of telling an engrossing tale about masculinity, fatherhood, crime, and morality.

Some may feel that the movie never quite lets you get a solid footing and may see that as a negative, but it totally worked for me. Hall is fantastic as the main protagonist, and he does some quite subtle work that makes his character feel deeply human and sympathetic.

Shepard - really playing against type - brings a great deal of pathos to his part, while Johnson - perhaps as good here as I've ever seen him in anything - adds an energy and a sense of humor in ways that are fully organic.

The movie is edited quite well (it really draws out the tension at all the right moments), while Jeff Grace's evocative score is straight out of the 1980s (in a very good way). All things told, COLD IN JULY comes highly recommended for fans of quality thrillers.