Eenie Meanie (2025)

 It truly feels like fans of gritty crime genre fare are eating well this month and the trend continues with Shawn Simmons' debut feature - Eenie Meanie.  Simmons delivers this heist thriller with a dose of black comedy and some absolutely bracing car chase action sequences. The film stars Samara Weaving as the titular  Edie "Eenie Meanie" - a moniker she earned as a teenage getaway driver working with her disaster of a boyfriend, Karl Glusman's John. Recent years have seen Edie get clear of both the Cleveland underworld apparatus and her chaotic relationship with John so she can focus on building something closer to a normal existence. Edie is drawn back into John's orbit which lands her immediately in the crosshairs of mob violence only to find herself under the yoke of local crime boss - Nico (Andy Garcia). Nico offers lenience in the matter of John's latest lethal fiasco in exchange for Edie pulling another job for him - stealing a Dodge Charger loaded with 3 million dollars in poker tournament winnings right off of a casino floor.

There's a lot to appreciate about Eenie Meanie and it feels like a throwback genre picture in important ways. Simmons worked with stunt coordinator Paul Jennings (Jack Reacher) to construct two main chase sequences that leverage practical effects with tremendous results. I'm the opposite of a gearhead (my sympathies lie closer to Edie's uptight manager who extols the virtues of bus passes), but the automotive action in Meanie is much more than mere car porn. The chases are gripping and visceral; and despite featuring a raging stoner riff laden soundtrack, they never feel like music videos. Undoubtedly some VFX were applied to the final film, but Simmons shows the restraint not to cover up fantastic practical stunts with thick digital veneer. Complementing the authenticity of the stunt sequences is the fact that so much of the film appears to be shot on location throughout Cleveland and Toledo. I do not have a deep knowledge of the area but it's hard to resist a film with such a strong sense of place. The bars, warehouses, bodegas, and city streets root this admittedly pulpy storyline in something more tangible. Finally, while crime dynasty epics are a fine thing, I confess that I prefer off-kilter, smaller stakes underworld stories. They lend themselves well to comedic interludes (Mike O'Malley kills it as Nico's lieutenant who is as concerned with Nico's diet as he is with running the business) and they allow room for a weirder collection of characters. Besides the two leads, Meanie is filled with great faces - especially Marshawn Lynch as a competing getaway driver and Chris Bauer as an exceptionally taciturn bar owner. 

For everything that I loved about Eenie Meanie, I found a few things less appealing. John's character is clearly intended to be a trainwreck with his goofy charisma and devotion to Edie as his saving graces. It's a tough character to pull off and certainly meant as representative of the kinds of insane relationships people find themselves in, but I struggled to come around to John's charms. Also, while the film starts with neck-breaking velocity and doesn't let up for some time - things do get perceptibly sluggish before the climax. I can't begrudge a film some quiet moments for context and character building, but it felt a bit slack overall. Sometimes these moments either need to be fortified in a longer format story or pruned away for the sake of momentum. Luckily things return to form once the heist commences and the finale hits like a sledgehammer. Eenie Meanie has some killer action, is legitimately funny, and executes plenty of what makes hard hitting crime stories work. My only regret is that I didn't get to see those chases on the big screen.

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Honey Don't! (2025)

While I appreciated the intention of Ethan Coen's and Tricia Cooke's first installment of their lesbian B-movie trilogy, Drive Away Dolls, I struggled to fully get in tune with its wavelength. The film took large helpings of Coen caper hallmarks and tossed them into the blender with coming-of-age road trip energy and some genuinely weird stylistic decisions. I could see the charm and I lauded the frank sexuality of the film, but the result was more live action cartoon than classic drive-in programmer. Now we have Dolls' spiritual sequel - Honey Don't - which maintains some of the same ethos of its predecessor translated to a neo-noir detective story. Margaret Qualley stars again, this time as the titular private investigator in and around a palpably dusty Bakersfield, CA. The story begins with a classic set up - a potential client for Honey turns up dead. The local police, led by a inept Charlie Day, declare it an accident but Honey starts to tease at the deeper details. She winds up digging into a local cult led by Chris Evans and as well as in bed with a world weary policewoman played by Aubrey Plaza. The plot beats will be recognizable to anyone familiar with pulp detective tropes - drugs, corruption, a missing girl, a femme fatale, even a classic protagonist blackout. However, they don't cohere in a particularly satisfying way and at the end of its brisk 88 minutes, you may find yourself with more questions than answers.

I confess that I quite enjoyed Qualley as Honey O'Donahue. Her hard drinking, hard quipping, sexually motivated if emotionally unavailable P.I. had enough grit and style to appeal even if the character wasn't totally revelatory. I cannot fathom why Coen and Cooke insist on having Qualley do accents, but I found her New York tinged dialogue less distracting than her wildly outsized drawl from the previous film. Oddly, it is revealed that O'Donahue is a local which leaves her accent as much of a mystery as her immaculate 40s inspired wardrobe. This is a common thread throughout the film - aspects of both the plot and the world are introduced and the reasons behind their existence are rarely revealed. It's as if Coen and Cooke were reading Chandler and decided that the success of The Big Sleep is due to the incoherence of its plot and not in spite of it. We're introduced to Reverend Drew Devlin (Evans), his bizarre cult, and the criminal activity that underpins it early in the film - Honey's investigation naturally leads her on a collision course straight to them. Evans accounts reasonably well for himself and it functions as a fair critique of evangelical grifters - but how this figures into the central mystery of the film comes off as flimsy by the finale. Two aspects of Honey do satisfy even after the credits roll - One is some absolutely ridiculous gory violence and the second is the heat between Honey and Aubrey Plaza's MG. Their initial meet and first "date" rekindle some of that fervent sexual energy from Dolls though, as this is a ultimately a more pessimistic film, the good times cannot last. 

I think the attempt here was to capture some of the strange, laconic atmosphere that a handful of the reinvented noirs of the 70s employed (Less Chinatown and more The Big Fix) and that speaks to me. There's an almost dreamlike sequence where Honey considers the existence of the downtrodden in Bakersfield and how that connects to the local bus. It reminded me in a small way of the Art Carney obscurity and personal favorite - The Late Show. I fear I may be projecting more of Coen's and Cooke's influences on Honey than what actually turns up on the screen. Of course the tone of those earlier films - not exactly laugh out loud funny, not particularly action packed, deliberately esoteric - didn't win over many fans at the time, either. Whether this is truly reaching back towards those orphaned genre curiosities or just a bit of a muddle will likely require another watch from me - however, I think I'll be happy to do so.

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Americana (2025)

It can be difficult not to note the influence of Pulp Fiction when you're faced with a film like Americana - feature debut from writer/director Tony Tost. Despite Americana's rural South Dakotan (with a touch of Wyoming) setting, I immediately started drawing connections to Tarantino's iconic L.A. crime tale  - Somewhat elliptical narrative, discreet titled chapters, unflinchingly violent, still quite funny in parts, and a noticeably intentional musical palette.  There's even a classic moment of a tough guy (a Native American resistance fighter brilliantly played by Zahn McClarnon) discussing the pop cultural influences that led him to adopting his current moniker, Ghost Eye.  I wouldn't call Americana derivative, though, and I think Tost brings a thoughtfulness to his film that helps nail down a tone that many attempt and few manage well. In addition to the crime milieu, Tost is also playing with the Western genre and this is where Americana gets the most interesting for me. I'm not the world's foremost expert on horse operas, but I caught more than one verbal and visual reference to notable predecessors - Old shoot em' ups on television screens, Pat Garret and Billy the Kid is invoked, and a doorway shot that could have been plucked right out of Sergio Leone film. The archetypes of the genre are also clearly on display - Americana features contemporary incarnations of cowboys and Indians and eventually sets them in conflict against each other. In this story, the fight isn't a territorial dispute but one over a piece of cultural history, a ghost shirt, appropriated by an affluent white man and considered valuable enough that other men will steal and kill to get their hands on it. 

Desire drives most of the noirish narrative in Americana - the shirt represents a chance at wealth and an opportunity to get out of South Dakota. Halsey's Mandy wants to sell the shirt to finally break free of all the toxic men in her life and find somewhere safe for her little brother Cal (who, often hilariously, believes he is the reincarnation of Sitting Bull). Sydney Sweeney's Penny Jo dreams of a singing career in Nashville, despite her stammering speech, and sees the shirt as her ticket out. Regardless of their flaws, Tost demonstrates a real affection for his characters and that affection is best demonstrated by Paul Walter Hauser playing the guileless, lovelorn Lefty Ledbetter. Unlike the other characters in the film, Lefty isn't looking for riches - he only wants to fall in love and share his life with a nice girl. The object of his affections becomes Penny Jo which inevitably pulls him into the hunt for the ghost shirt - misguided maybe, but hardly greedy. 

Each party and faction is inexorably drawn to the shirt for a final showdown at an off -grid Wyoming compound that isn't explicitly defined but is clearly driven by some kind of patriarchal, separatist hierarchy. The plot mechanics that pull everyone to this conflict faltered a bit for me, but the climax absolutely delivers in the kind of glorious shootout worthy of the best Westerns. The final moments involve both emotional reunifications and some tragic departures - but I especially appreciate that the women of the film (so often abused and overlooked in even the best examples of the genre) are granted the most catharsis and get at least some of what they were looking for.

Americana is darkly funny, violent, and presents an authentic and unique sense of place. It's getting a theatrical release this week (8/15) and is well worth seeking out.

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Two-Fisted Soul - Truck Tuner (1974)

This review was originally published in Klon Waldrip's Ghastly Horror Society zine. I've republished it here in memoriam of Jonathan Kaplan.

Big Brother is Comin’ and He’s Comin’ On Strong!

All American International Pictures wanted out of Truck Turner was a kickass Isaac Hayes score and enough action footage to cut a decent trailer. The script had been bouncing around for years and when it failed to come together as hardboiled crime flick intended for Bob Mitchum or Lee Marvin, the producers decided to make it a “black” movie and reached out to Hayes. AIP’s hope was to replicate the double fisted success of Shaft and deliver decent box office performance alongside a hit record. For his part, Hayes was willing to ink the music deal provided he got to star in the movie (after winning the original song Oscar for Shaft, he had no shortage of offers). Jonathan Kaplan had been attached to direct since the Mitchum/Marvin discussions and wasn’t sure what to make of the “Black Moses of Soul” but went out to meet his new leading man. The two hit it off almost immediately due to their shared love of Otis Redding, Kaplan’s passing resemblance to Stax Records stalwart Donald “Duck” Dunn, and a mutual conviction that the film as written wasn’t much fun. They agreed that to better suit both Hayes’ temperament and their artistic convictions, they’d inject the straightforward crime story with humor and heart while still delivering on the tunes and action enough to fill five trailers.

When He’s Baddest, He’s the Best!

Truck Turner’s set up changed very little from the early drafts, but the plot did go through some evolution – Mac “Truck” Turner was a former gridiron star turned .357 Magnum packing skip tracer in L.A. He and his partner Jerry take a risky job to bring in a violent pimp by the name of Gator. Gator is killed in the pursuit and his lover and stable madam, Dorinda, offers a bounty of her stable of women to any pimp in L.A. who can take Turner out. The details are heavy, but the delivery is light. Turner is introduced as a slovenly, oversleeping cat-dad (Harry Callahan, he ain’t) and he and Jerry (Alan Weeks) give each other shit over cars and women. When Turner indulges in a fistfight with a racist blowhard they’re hauling in, Jerry rolls his eyes like he’s seen this dozens of times before. Besides his friendship with Jerry, Turner’s relationship with his thief girlfriend Annie (Annazette Chase) infuses a lot of heart to the film. Hayes’ performance is solid, he’s essentially playing himself on camera, but Chase is good enough to bring substantial emotional heft to their scenes. Nichelle Nichols undeniably steals the whole damn show as Dorinda. Tough, foul mouthed, and mean – apparently Nichelle adlibbed much of Dorinda’s dialogue and she crams as many “bitches” and “motherfuckers” into every scene as she can. Heartbreakingly for genre fans, this was a one-off performance for Nichols who would immediately retire from the blaxploitation racket. Fortunately, she left us with gems like “Gentlemen, this is my family. These all prime cut bitches, $238,000 worth of dynamite. It's Fort Knox in panties.” Rounding out the main cast is Yaphet Kotto as Harvard Blue, the hardest and most pragmatic of the L.A. pimps. Kotto wasn’t particularly interested in Turner but he was going through a divorce and needed the scratch. In a way, this works for his character. While everyone else in the film seems to be having the time of their lives; Harvard Blue brings a sober, “sick of your shit” attitude that pairs beautifully with Kotto’s inherent gravitas. It’s not the most charming Kotto’s been on screen, but he makes you believe that he’s bad.

When He Gets It On, the Action Takes Off!

Kaplan was well aware of what his producers were looking for in the dailies and his attitude towards action sequences was that if they were completely over-the-top, he could maintain a more lighthearted tone. He absolutely nails that in some sequences: during a high-speed car chase, a pimp barrels through a baby cart filled with bagels for no discernable reason. The “Pimp Funeral” is one of the more notorious sequences in the film: a procession of candy colored “pimpmobiles” delivers a coterie of Gator’s associates decked out in everything from mourning veils to rainbow wigs to jeweled eyepatches (the look of the working girls was supposedly derived from the Pointer Sisters). Along with his editor, Michael Kahn (Spielberg’s go-to guy for decades), Kaplan’s facility for visual storytelling makes for stylish, propulsive, hard-hitting (they used the punching sounds from Enter the Dragon) filmmaking even if visual continuity gets tossed out the window on occasion. Because the crew had to work fast and on-budget, they utilize a ton of fantastic location footage from mid-70s L.A.: fistfights and chases erupt through Skid Row, dive bars, insane mansions, and even a water treatment plant. Kaplan also cranks the violence up to eleven showcasing some blood-drenched brutality. There’s a distinct shift in tone for the final 30 minutes of the film resulting in some truly visceral shootouts and carnage. Is it funny? I’m not so sure that it is, but it’s cinematic as hell.

By 1974 the initial wave of blaxploitation pictures was losing steam. Both Shaft and Superfly were subjected to less heralded sequels and studios were beginning to combine elements of horror or martial arts to help invigorate the genre. Truck Turner distinguished itself from the pack with its comedic leanings and freewheeling style. It’s not the toughest blaxploitation flick, and it’s certainly not the meanest, but it’s arguably the most fun. See it now, see it again, and see it with an audience if you can. 

She Rides Shotgun (2025)

She Rides Shotgun is a film I've been looking forward to since hearing its announcement. It arrives boasting serious talent behind the camera including director Nick Rowlands (Calm with Horses) and a screenplay from Super Dark Times writers Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski. However, my enthusiasm was mostly due to my having so loved the source novel of the same title by Jordan Harper. Harper has unleashed a handful of books that incorporate economical prose, gritty violence, and a genuine facility for cinematic fights, chases, and twisty reveals. Of course, adaptations of even the finest written work can falter when translated to film and I did have questions on how some aspects of the novel would be incorporated. However, I'm happy to report that Shotgun delivers a taut, well executed, potently performed genre piece that may be the perfect antidote to anyone fatiguing from blockbuster season.

The story of the film, in broad strokes, is essentially that of the book: Nate McClusky (Taron Egerton) has recently been released from prison - however he earned the enmity of a powerful Aryan gang while inside and now has a "green light" for his death as well as the death of his family hanging over him. Nate finds his daughter Polly (Ana Sophia Heger) so that the two can hide, survive, and possibly escape the threat of murderous gang members and those in their sphere of influence. Polly, who hasn't seen Nate in years, is naturally suspicious and frightened and what follows is as much a story of the two learning to relate to one another as it is a chase story - though it is still punctuated with tense sequences of action and violence. The success of the film is heavily indebted to the stand out performances from the two leads. Egerton, against type, manages to convincingly walk the tightrope between an edgy ex-con capable of intense physical brutality when called upon and a genuinely caring parent. Ana Sophia Heger may well be giving the child performance of the year, absolutely embodying the intelligent, independent Polly who is both keenly perceptive but also still a young child being subjected to a tsunami of emotional trauma. The first 15 minutes of the film beautifully establish Nate and Polly's rapport with each other - allowing their mutual suspicion to pare away naturally and give way to a fragile, but vital, trust.

Shotgun features some tremendous supporting roles as well, notably John Carroll Lynch as the sheriff in a county outside of Albuquerque (where much of the film takes place) that also happens to house one of the largest meth labs in the state. Lynch is capable of both a folksy charisma and chilling menace and transitions seamlessly between them in a scene where he questions and tortures a wayward heroin mule caught in his territory. My favorite bit of casting has to be  Rob Yang as Detective John Park. Park, in the novel, is written as a committed career investigator who is obsessed with the chase and finding his quarry. Yang does embody some of this aspect but he also delivers it with an intellectual remove that adds another layer of interest to the character. I'm mostly familiar with Yang as a television actor but I would love to see him lead a crime/thriller film of his own.

Stylistically, Shotgun feels like a film with a real budget behind it. There are some breathtaking shots of the New Mexico landscape at twilight that give way to almost alien darkness dotted with city lights stretching out into the distance. The exteriors are paired with some novel neo-noir interiors including a dimly lit roadside trailer "trucker's chapel." Much of the movie centers on the evolving relationship between Nate and Polly, but the action is visceral when it arrives. The fight sequences are awkward and nasty - feeling much more like the reality of violence than action movie choreography. The film does allow for a highly cinematic car chase between Nate and the local police - it bends plausibility but never breaks it and it's hard to resist genre goods delivered so expertly. The climax lands somewhat clumsily for me, but it's still a solid action sequence that allows for some fantastically villainous stuff from Lynch. The denouement again gives Heger a platform to capture startling emotional complexity from a performer so young.

She Rides Shotgun is getting a limited theatrical release starting today (08/01/2025) and I would highly recommend you seek it out if it is playing near you. A friend recently asked me if mid-budget crime films and thrillers are clawing their way back into the theater and I'd like to think that they are. This one is too good to miss.

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