Cold in July (2014)
Directed by Jim Mickle
While investigating noises in his house one balmy Texas night in 1989, Richard Dane puts a bullet in the brain of a low-life burglar. Although he’s hailed as a small-town hero, Dane soon finds himself fearing for his family’s safety when Freddy’s ex-con father rolls into town, hell-bent on revenge.
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8 films that influenced Cold in July
What critics say influenced Cold in July
Suddenly, what started as a riff on A History Of Violence begins to look more like Cape Fear—and from there, the twists in tone and narrative agenda only get wilder.
(In this, “Cold in July” shares some connective tissue with David Cronenberg’s “A History of Violence,” in which a similar act of heroism unleashed the dark side of an unassuming family man.)
Finally arriving on screens after several years in the making, his fourth feature Cold in July is a gripping and stylish western noir that blends the small-town malevolence of David Cronenberg's A History of Violence with a sinewy B-movie efficiency that recalls other recent potboiler adaptations like The Lincoln Lawyer .
But instead of dwelling on the moral consequences of an ordinary joe taking a stand (a la A History Of Violence), the film takes a sharp left-turn into psycho-thriller territory when the intruder’s father (Sam Shepard) comes a-calling.
In some ways, the film forms a flipside companion piece to David Cronenberg's A History of Violence, another tale of a quiet man drawn into a world of comic-strip brutality, littered with broken-backed narrative left turns that wrong-foot the audience, leaving them wondering how much of this is but a bloody, fevered dream.
The mood at this point is reminiscent of A History of Violence , David Cronenberg 's excellent drama about a small-town family forced to reckon with the traumatic things that, in movies, seem to have no effect on people.
For all the action (and there is plenty) in Cold in July, it’s really more of a psychological suspense movie, and the three principal actors are so good that I can forgive the derivative nature of the plot (The Big Sleep gets more than a nod, as does an urban legend about a particular type of “special interest” film) and the occasional improbability of the latter two-thirds of the film.
As the movie progresses, it also becomes clear that Mickle is less concerned with recreating the ’80s than with recreating a certain kind of ’80s movie, specifically seedy dives into crime fiction like William Friedkin's To Live and Die in L.A., John Frankenheimer's 52 Pick-Up and Michael Mann's Thief.
The clearest influence on “Cold in July” is John Carpenter — in addition to the “Assault on Precinct 13” style plot, there’s an ominous synth-heavy score that screams Carpenter.
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Even the credits are in “Big Trouble in Little China” font.
I don't see much resemblance beyond that except maybe to Big Trouble in Little China (ordinary guy dragged into underworld), but Mickle's interest in genre conventions is worth noting, especially as Cold in July is so different from his previous films, which have mostly been horror variations.
The clearest influence on “Cold in July” is John Carpenter — in addition to the “Assault on Precinct 13” style plot, there’s an ominous synth-heavy score that screams Carpenter.
Channeling John Carpenter (Assault on Precinct 13) and David Cronenberg (A History of Violence), director Jim Mickle expertly builds nerve-shattering tension into Cold in July.
Written and directed by Jim Mickle and based on Joe R. Lansdale's novel, "Cold's" threatening mood puts it in some good company, including the Coen brothers ' "Blood Simple" (1984), Michael Winterbottom's "The Killer Inside Me" (2010) and Richard Linklater's "Bernie" (2011).
Finally arriving on screens after several years in the making, his fourth feature Cold in July is a gripping and stylish western noir that blends the small-town malevolence of David Cronenberg's A History of Violence with a sinewy B-movie efficiency that recalls other recent potboiler adaptations like The Lincoln Lawyer .