Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Barret Mulholland
Starring: Kaelen Ohm, Gord Rand, Nicholas Campbell, Pedro Miguel Arce, Antonina Battrick, Benjamin Blais
You can't beat a good b-movie. A single location, squibs galore, witty dialogue and committed
character actors, and all in under 85 minutes? *Chef's kiss*. That's
exactly what we get with director Barrett Mulholland's Last County, a bloody and blackly comic siege thriller that plays like a post-Coen
brothers riff on the sort of western that would have played on the
bottom half of a 1950s double bill, but which likely would have proven
more enterrtaining than the bigger budgeted main feature.
Like most good b-movies, the action here is confined to a single
setting, a secluded rural home that once belonged to the parents of our
troubled heroine Abby (Kaelen Ohm). A recovering alcoholic,
Abby's marriage is on the rocks, thanks to a prologue incident in which
she caused a car crash with her young daughter Grace (Antonina Battrick) in the back seat. That episode proved the final straw for her
long-suffering hubby Brian (Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll), who
subsequently filed for divorce. Now Abby has decided to spend some time
at her old family home to clear her head, and is hoping Brian and Grace
will join her.
Abby's hopes of getting some peace and quiet and time for reflection
are scuppered when she discovers a pair of fugitives hiding out in her
parents' home. Ephram (Keaton Kaplan) is bleeding all over the
bedsheets from a nasty gunshot wound while his accomplice, the panicked
Bennet (Gord Rand) uses the threat of violence to coerce Abby
into cooperating.
I have to admit that for much of the opening act I set my expectations
quite low as the movie fooled me into believing I was watching something
very different from what eventually plays out. The relationship between
the damaged Abby and the threatening but sensitive Bennet suggests we're
in for one of those romances where a lonely woman falls for a handsome
fugitive, along the lines of Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin in the
hilariously misjudged Labor Day. But don't worry, no pies are baked here, as just when Bennet begins
to show signs that he might not be the badass he makes out, the movie
takes a turn into siege territory with the arrival of a group of corrupt
local cops intent on getting their hands on the bag of drug money
currently in Bennet's possession.
As corrupt sheriff McLean, veteran character actor Nicholas Campbell gets what might be the role of his life. The ruthless and stoic
McLean is the movie's MVP: he gets all the best lines and Campbell
delivers them with crackerjack comic timing. McLean's disarming
old-timer charm means we're never sure just how much of a threat he
poses, and to whom. The audience cipher is Abby, who needs to put away
the pills that have kept her in a tranquilised state up to this moment
and figure out who she can trust. McLean's deputies are a bickering
bunch who can't quite decide if it's worth getting dragged down with
their maniacal boss, further obfuscating who Abby can count on for
help.
Mulholland's muscular direction keeps the action moving at a relentless
pace. As the bullets fly so do the witty zingers, and there are parts
where you won't know whether to laugh or recoil in horror at the
over-the-top mayhem. Movies like this tend to fall into the cringy camp
of badly imitating Tarantino, but the script by
brothers Matthew and Sean Kohnen moves
to its own rhythm. There's a lot more to this than the usual collection
of eccentric yet clichéd characters shouting colorful dialogue while
blowing each other's heads off. The Kohnens don't waste any time delving
into the backstory of how these cops and ciminals and criminal cops
ended up duking it out over a bag of money, because let's face it, who
cares? It's simply an excuse for a squibfest, and Mulholland takes full
advantage with some hilariously over-the-top violence, made all the more
amusing by Campbell's deadpan handling of the situation.
Last County is't so much a case of "they don't make 'em like this anymore,"
because plenty of filmmakers have tried to pull off this sort of movie
in recent years. But by embracing the simplicity of their setup,
Mulholland and the Kohnens have crafted a comic thriller that recalls
the b-westerns of the '50s and the rugged, bloodsoaked action movies of
the '70s, all while keeping its tongue lodged firmly in its tobaccy
chewin' gums.
Last County is on Canadian VOD
from August 9th. A UK/ROI release has yet to be announced.
