• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • NEWS+OPINIONS
    • NEWS TO US
    • COLUMNS
      • APPARENT HORIZON
      • DEAR READER
      • Close
    • LONGFORM FEATURES
    • OPINIONS
    • EDITORIAL
    • Close
  • ARTS+ENTERTAINMENT
    • FILM
    • MUSIC
    • COMEDY
    • PERFORMING ARTS
    • VISUAL ARTS
    • Close
  • DINING+DRINKING
    • EATS
    • SIPS
    • BOSTON BETTER BEER BUREAU
    • Close
  • LIFESTYLE
    • CANNABIS
      • TALKING JOINTS MEMO
      • Close
    • WELLNESS
    • GTFO
    • Close
  • STUFF TO DO
  • TICKETS
  • ABOUT US
    • ABOUT
    • MASTHEAD
    • ADVERTISE
    • Close
  • BECOME A MEMBER

Dig Bos

The Dig - Greater Boston's Alternative News Source

CAR WATT-AGE: THERE’S A WESTERN CHARGE TO “COP CAR”

Written by JAKE MULLIGAN Posted August 13, 2015 Filed Under: Film

FM_CopCar_728

Most narrative films fit into one of two categories: There are movies that foreshadow, and there are movies that don’t. The recently released Big Game, for instance, fits into the former category: An Eastern European preteen who couldn’t lift a bow rescued a crash-landed POTUS during a ritual hunt; no points for guessing what weapon he was using by film’s end.

 

Cop Car is another genre movie populated by preteens: Harrison and Travis are walking the open plains, with the spiky Travis leading the more hesitant Harrison in a curse-word sing-a-long. Director Jon Watts only foreshadows one single thing about the following 86 minutes: One of these kids is going to say, “Oh, f***.”

 

The leadup to that exclamation starts when they steal the eponymous vehicle—conspicuously empty—off a dirt road. Then we swap perspectives and timelines, meeting the crooked cop (Kevin Bacon) dumb enough to leave it there. Then back to the boys, joyriding and making “Mario Kart” jokes. Then to a pearl-clutching grandma they almost run down. Then to the mysterious stranger (Shea Whigham) they find lying in the trunk. And then the bullets start flying—from one perspective to another, in every damn direction.

 

It’s not a closed loop like Big Game—where setups and payoffs circle like race cars—but an evolving entity, with each point of view introduced enlarging the boiling pot until it swallows these boys whole. The influences, then, are the pop art Eastwood westerns directed by Sergio Leone, who also shunned foreshadowing and delighted in introducing jarringly unexpected elements with every edit. Watts’ film, shot with the same dusty palette and in the same super-wide aspect ratio, doesn’t hide its lineage. And it can’t help but appear a trifle compared to those masterpieces of genre goofiness. Yet the pleasures wrought by the blind structure—like the very unexpected return of one of those aforementioned players—delight in a way that all those other knockoffs fail to achieve. It doesn’t matter if the shot misses its mark by a bit. You still didn’t see it coming. 

 

COP CAR. RATED R. COOLIDGE CORNER THEATRE. 290 HARVARD AVE., BROOKLINE. LIMITED ENGAGEMENT, INCLUDING MIDNIGHT SHOWS, BEGINS FRI 8.14.

JAKE MULLIGAN
+ posts
  • JAKE MULLIGAN
    https://digboston.com/author/jake-mulligan/
    INTERVIEW: FREDERICK WISEMAN

Filed Under: Film Tagged With: Big Game, Coolidge Corner Theatre, Cop Car, Jon Watts, Kevin Bacon, Sergio Leone, Shea Whigham

WHAT’S NEW

State Wire: Mass Legislation Aims To Improve Language Access For All

State Wire: Mass Legislation Aims To Improve Language Access For All

State Wire: Mass Launches Free Legal Advice Hotline Regarding Abortion Care

State Wire: Mass Launches Free Legal Advice Hotline Regarding Abortion Care

State Wire: Mass Bill Would Tighten Restrictions On Facial Recognition Technology

State Wire: Mass Bill Would Tighten Restrictions On Facial Recognition Technology

Mass Higher Ed Advocates Urge More Investment In Students 

Mass Higher Ed Advocates Urge More Investment In Students 

Guest Opinion: Promoting Metal Detectors In BPS Perpetuates Dangerous Narrative

Guest Opinion: Promoting Metal Detectors In BPS Perpetuates Dangerous Narrative

State Wire: Mass Leads Nation In 'Green' Building Development

State Wire: Mass Leads Nation In ‘Green’ Building Development

Primary Sidebar

LOCAL EVENTS

AAN Wire


Most Popular

  • Think Massachusetts Cannabis Prices Are Low Now? Just Wait Six Months!
  • A New Beginning For Formerly Incarcerated Women
  • Jerrod Carmichael Has First Show After Coming Out—At the Wilbur In Boston
  • Why Are Cannabis Prices Really Crashing?
  • Dig This: Thousands Of Furries Flocking To Anthro New England 

Footer

Social Buttons

DigBoston facebook DigBoston Twitter DigBoston Instagram

Masthead

About

Advertise

Customer Service

About Us

DigBoston is a one-stop nexus for everything worth doing or knowing in the Boston area. It's an alt-weekly, it's a website, it's an email blast, it's a twitter account, it's that cool party that you were at last night ... hey, you're reading it, so it's gotta be good. For advertising inquiries: sales@digboston.com To reach editorial (and for inquiries about internship opportunities): editorial@digboston.com