Outlaws & Angels Review: A poor attempt at a western
Three bank robbers walk into a dysfunctional home on the
prairie in JT Mollner‘s cold-bloodedOutlaws and Angels, filmed and
premiering at Sundance in glorious 35mm. The premise naturally evokes Quentin
Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight, particularly when it comes to the outlaws,
however light their presence may be. Amongst the three groups — the
outlaws, the Tildon family and the law — angels, too, are largely missing in
the film.
Opening on a small farm estate we are briefly introduced to
the Tildon clan: patriarch George (Ben Browder) is a tough recovering alcoholic
who attempts to get right with the Lord, even if his daughters Flo (Francesca
Eastwood) and Charlotte (Madisen Beaty) aren’t buying it. Short on life outside
of the homestead (they’re told most of the eligible bachelors in town have
taken ill) they remain the ward of George until they are liberated by a band of
outlaws.
The western aesthetic mostly works as the film delivers kill
shots that surprise, leaving several bodies on the floor. When it tries to
twist the format into the kind of dark contemporary road coming-of-age dramas
festivals seem to specialize in, its impact lessens. Outlaws and Angels has
rare moment of tenderness amongst the ugliness, which make it a nearly
impossible to review without spoiling a key plot point.
It’s great to see a film shot and projected on film at
Sundance. Too bad they didn’t know how to record sound. Half the locations drown
out the actors and the score sounds like it was recorded on a boom box, it’s so
blown out and distorted. That’s just one of the technically incompetent,
amateurish aspects of Outlaws and Angels.
Director JT Mollner and cinematographer Matthew Irving go
overboard on zoom lenses in every scene. If Sergio Leone were still here to see
this, he’d say, “Settle down, dudes.”
Congratulations on getting this first feature into the
Sundance Film Festival. I believe it's the film's first and last success.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
"New Film Directors - New Discoveries" is a blog dedicated to discovering new talents worldwide. Our mission is to empower emerging screenwriters and directors and to shine a light on their work through our blog so they can reach wider audience. Terrence Peterson, the author of the blog "New Film Directors - New Discoveries" is an acclaimed film critic with the degree of philosophy in Comparative Literature at Princeton, the external lecturer at 7 universities, including Princeton and Columbia, and the receiver of The National Order of Merit. All contributors are welcome to send their texts and reviews
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