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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