Review of Cop Car (2015) by Patrick K — 31 Aug 2016

Take a little "Reservoir Dogs." Combine it with some "Stand By Me." Toss in a bit of "No Country for Old Men." What emerges from this oddball concoction is the superb "Cop Car." Actors James Freedson-Jackson and Hays Wellford play two preteen runaways - Travis and Harrison - who steal an unattended cop car from the middle of flatland farm country. These two carry the success of "Cop Car" on their young shoulders. If they fail to convince audiences that their characters would actually commit such a stupid act and then would compound their idiocy by tooling recklessly through the back roads, blasting the siren and flashing the light bar - stopping only to play make-believe games with the treasure trove of deadly cop gear they find on board - then this movie is an abject failure. Turns out I believe these characters one hundred percent ... which means that I consider "Cop Car" a one hundred per cent success.

Has Kevin Bacon ever portrayed such a relentlessly evil jerk as the "Cop Car" sheriff? We are never told exactly what heinous crime the sheriff is trying to cover up, only that it involves a duffel bag full of cocaine and two unidentified half-dead men. We also learn that the sheriff has no qualms about committing cold-blooded murder to conceal his guilt. His missing vehicle contains enough evidence to land him in prison for life, so you'd think that as soon as he realizes he's stranded on foot in the middle of nowhere that he would consider himself hopelessly screwed. Far from it ... because this crafty S.O.B. resides squarely in Anton Chigurh territory. That is, he is an eternally optimistic villain. He never gives up. As soon as he realizes that his vehicle has been heisted, he slings his duffel bag across his shoulder and begins a double-time jog across the endless farmland. He's a bad man with a bad plan. And that's not good news for the two young cop car thieves.

"Cop Car" is shoestring-budget film making at its finest. "Cop Car" has it all. It is funny. It is suspenseful. It is wistful. It is scary. It is horrific. It is sad. And just as director Jon Watts deliberately leaves the viewer in the dark about events before the film opens, he is also vague about the ending. I'm sure the ambiguous ending of "Cop Car" infuriated some of the less imaginative members of the audience. Truth is, I really dig Watts's ending. I'm not angry that Watts doesn't tell us exactly what the future holds for these two lads. Over the course of only eighty-eight film minutes, I really got to know the hapless Travis and Harrison. My inner-kid identified with them so much that I wish from the bottom of my heart that everything works out just peachy for them both. I bet you will, too.