Directed by: David Mackenzie
Written by: Taylor Sheridan
Streaming on Prime Video.
It's a neo-Western crime drama, in the space of No Country for Old Men. The singular idea of the film is about two brothers who rob banks, but the film has a well rounded narrative constructed around this one piece of an idea. It explores why people commit crime, some for survival and some for fun. The headspace of the people when they're in it. It inevitably also explores the story of the cops, their headspace and their lives. I like the dynamics between the two brothers, and how they explore each of their character with respect to each other. The film never explores any character as an individual, it always explores each character with a frame of reference. The brothers are explored with respect to each other, and we understand more about a character by the contrast they have with the other than by their own self. Same goes with the cops. They too are explored like that. I like how the film though has a climactic episode, it doesn't close all loops. It still has a little hanging, because perhaps that's how crime is. It's never completely over. Once you get in, it keeps lingering till the time you die.
I like the tone and the texture of the film. It's not as raw as No Country for Old Men, and it's not as refined as a Fincher film either. It has an interesting mid ground. The experience of the film is quite subliminal, it keeps everything on a very surface level. It doesn't aim to go real close to the characters, it is okay keeping us at a distance, which is why we can see the events of the film slightly objectively, as how crime should be looked at. If we empathize a lot with the brothers, then one of the brothers dying would make us feel rage towards the cops. But the film strikes a beautiful balance where we are slightly invested in the characters, and we feel too, but we don't get carried away by the feelings to a point where we cannot see things for what they are.
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