Jon Watts Cop Car tells the story of two ten-year-old boys who have recently runaway from home. As they venture through the desolate countryside, the boys stumble across an abandoned cop car in a field. Discovering the keys, the two boys decide to take the cop car on a joyride, soon enough finding themselves in a deadly game of cat and mouse with the crooked, local Sheriff who desperately needs the car back. For a film with such a cold, pessimistic view of the world, Jon Watts' Cop Car is a surprisingly breezy experience, being a lean thriller which manages to blend its dark comedy and taut thriller aspects in a way that works quite well. A major reason why this works so well is undoubtedly the treatment of its two lead characters, as Cop Car writes these two main protagonists surprisingly well, doing a great job at capturing the naivety, sense of wonder, and exuberance which exists among children at this age. Through much of the film's running time the boys themselves have absolutely no idea how much trouble they find themselves in, though the audience is well aware that they are stuck in the middle of an extremely dangerous situation. Eventually confronted by the dangers they find themselves in, the boys find their carefree exuberance effectively shattered, as they are introduced to the danger and evil which exists in the world. At its core, Cop Car is essentially a very dark coming of age story which finds two young teenagers awoken from their active, carefree imaginations. While Cop Car is without question a dark film, the way Kevin Bacon's Dirty Cop character is written and actred, goes a long way in creating this aforementioned breezy experience. Bacon plays a character who simply isn't smart enough to keep himself out of trouble, using his wit and Sheriff status in town to slwoly dig himself out of his problems. The character himself is dangerous but not particularly menacing, which goes a long way when it comes to the dark comedy aspects of the film. Never feeling self-important in the way it juxtaposes the innocence of youth with the darker aspects of humanity, Jon Watt's Cop Car is a stripped down, well-crafted, coming of age thriller which somehow manages to balance both its comedic and dramatic elements.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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