Review of Cop Car (2015) by Joshua L — 11 Sep 2015

Cop Car is the second feature for up-and-coming director, Jon Watts who just secured the coveted job of directing the Spider-Man reboot, and if this film is any indication of his talents, I have full faith in him helming future projects! A completely simple premise of two kids who take a cop car for a joy-ride with the sheriff in pursuit is expanded to points I never saw coming and this film truly impressed me.

Kevin Bacon stars as the corrupt and pissed-off Sheriff who loses his squad car while he's in the process of doing some nefarious deeds and he rarely disappoints! The shining stars of this film however are the two newcomers who play the boys who bounce off one another with effortless chemistry and truly hilarious, naive dialogue.

The many scenes of them exploring, acting just like kids do, and even attempting to figure out how to fire some guns were my favourite moments in the film. There's an even balance spent with the boys and the Sheriff separately but when they finally meet in the climax the film goes a bit over-board and even a little cartoony.

This doesn't torpedo the film by any means, but the Sheriff character starts acting like a Terminator and it doesn't fit with the rest of the movie. The ending as most independent films are these days, is left ambiguous and while I feel most films that do this have no clue how to wrap it up, I was happy with this choice as it fit the tone of the film which is both darkly comedic and shocking; a bit Coen Brothers-esque.