THE KID

Ethan Hawke     Chris Pratt     Jake Schur     Leila George     Dane DeHaan

     Although pretty much a typical western, The Kid has a few surprising twists and turns.  Rio (Schur) is a 14 year-old boy without a good father figure on which to pattern himself.  But he has read about Billy the Kid (played here by Dane DeHaan) and has a huge case of hero worship.  When he and his older sister Sara (George) are on the run after a tragic encounter with their uncle Grant (Pratt), whom should they meet on the way but Billy the Kid.  Sara, knowing the dangers of information, has cautioned Rio against telling anything about their story, so he doesn’t confide in Billy when they get holed up in an isolated house on the New Mexico prairie, despite Billy’s famous friendly chatter.  Rio does let him know a little of his story, and Billy is immediately touched, identifying with him and giving Rio a memento of their connection.

     Sheriff Pat Garrett (Hawke) has gotten a tip about where the bandidos are hiding, and appears on the scene, capturing Billy and his cohorts.  When Rio and Sara suddenly appear, it’s a surprise to the lawmen.  Sara tells the sheriff that they “got separated” from their father, and are on their way to Santa Fe to find their mother’s friend, and the sheriff—a clearly honorable man with a conscience—offers to let them ride with his train to the place where they will drop off one of the prisoners.  Then he will take them to Santa Fe before proceeding to Lincoln County with Billy.

     Most of the story takes place on these eventful rides, with Sara’s, Rio’s, and even Sheriff Garrett’s lives threatened here and there.  One of the most threatening is when Uncle Grant finds Rio and Sara and kidnaps her.   

     Sheriff Garrett senses that Rio is hiding something, and asks him over and over if he has anything to tell him; but Rio always says no and glosses over the real story.  

     The Kid has all the usual western tropes of gun slinging, posses, a sheriff who attempts to bring justice, etc.; but it also has:  The unlikely friendship between a wanted criminal and a boy who’s trying to figure out morality in life; men talking emotionally about their first kill; and periodic philosophical musings from a sheriff [e.g., “It’s the world we’re in“ (i.e., we’re not in control of everything); "It’s not intelligence; it’s lack of fear”, “It doesn’t matter what’s true; It matters the story they tell when you’re gone.”  

     Director Vincent D’Onofrio and writer Andrew Lanham have created a story with all the excitement and color of a western, but have inserted little elaborations that make it interesting, such as the thoughtfulness and humanity of the sheriff, reflections by men about their experiences of killing, the thoughts of a boy about life’s dilemmas, and the devastation of sexual exploitation upon a young woman.

     Outstanding actors include Ethan Hawke—always superb in his portrayals--Jake Schur as the impressionable but thoughtful Rio, Dane DeHaan as the crafty, teasing Billy the Kid, and Chris Pratt of the Jurassic World, Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Passengers world, becoming a bad guy in a western.  

For westerns fans, The Kid has something to offer beyond the usual fare.

Grade:  B                                 By Donna R. Copeland

MORTAL ENGINES

Hera Hilmer     Hugo Weaving     Jihae     Robert Sheehan     Leila George     Stephen Lang

     How often has someone’s pursuit of absolute power been the downfall of mortals? Far too many times in fiction and history.  In Mortal Engines, this drama is played out on the screen once again.  The film seems to have been made primarily as a special effects spectacle—and indeed these are impressive, along with production design by Dan Hennah.  I especially took to the red transport resembling an elegantly designed flying insect that belongs to Anna Fang.  But the “mortal engines”, cities, and terrain as a whole are wonderfully constructed to look like an amalgam of the ancient world and some kind of futuristic scientific technology. These set the stage for the story; with resources scarce all over the world, larger cities are gobbling up smaller ones for their resources, and enslave their populations. Director Christian Rivers’ background is in storyboard art and visual and special effects, which is surely likely to have influenced the making of the film.

     Drama is secondary, although this film is better than most in the genre to portray three-dimensional human beings wrapped up in a fairly complex story.  I especially hooted/cheered about historians playing heroic as well as demonic roles.

     Major players include Hester Shaw (Hilmer) who covers her face with a red scarf and has more than one person chasing after her for either good or ill.  She’s got an ongoing score to settle with Thaddeus Valentine (Weaving) having to do with her deceased mother, an archeologist who made a significant discovery.  He is head of the Guild of Historians, but has a secret major project he is determined to see come into fruition.  Tom Natsworthy (Sheehan) is a distractible historian and something of an outcast who works for Valentine, but his skills in “old technology” (“old” means prior to the “Sixty Minute War” that destroyed much of the earth—including America—and its technology) are valuable because the city of London is dying from lack of natural resources and it needs a miracle solution.  

     Two ancillary characters are important:  Anna Fang (Jihae), although now an outlaw, knew Hester’s mother and is bound to look after Hester if she can just locate her.  Shrike (Lang), a creature made by a group that literally deposited their own negative traits into beings they created for that purpose, wants to find Hester to force her to keep a promise she made to him.

From the opening scenes when the cities on giant wheels lumber across the countryside—one chasing the other—through the awkward romance, and to the climactic final battle, Mortal Engines seems to follow the usual script of “little” people going after the big players who have no heart and exploit everyone they can in the interest of achieving some self-serving goal.  The actors, especially Hera Hilmer as Hester, make their characters come alive and pull for your emotional reaction to them.  

     Mortal Engines is not a groundbreaking movie, but it will appeal to fans who like stories based on fantasy loosely tied to history and science, especially if it has glorious special effects.

Mortal Engines is like tripping the light fantastic.

Grade:  C+                                    By Donna R. Copeland