Cop Car (2015)
Directed by Jon Watts
Two kids find themselves in the centre of a deadly game of cat and mouse after taking a sheriff's cruiser for a joy ride.
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4 films that influenced Cop Car
What critics say influenced Cop Car
Despite its compact scale and structure, this high-concept mini-thriller from writer-director Jon Watts packs in the references: the pre-teen trauma of Stand by Me is in there, as is Spielberg’s highway stand-off Duel , and the blackly comic crime capers of the Coen brothers.
The 34-year-old director has steeped himself in the movies of the Seventies as seen on VHS in the Eighties, especially the early works of Steven Spielberg from Duel through Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
The license plate of Sheriff Kretzer�s car is 149PCE, referring to Steven Spielberg�s first (and maybe best) film, Duel (1971).
It might be one of the more impressive directorial breakthroughs I have seen in some time, even harkening to early Spielberg with Duel and The Sugarland Express.
Despite its compact scale and structure, this high-concept mini-thriller from writer-director Jon Watts packs in the references: the pre-teen trauma of Stand by Me is in there, as is Spielberg’s highway stand-off Duel , and the blackly comic crime capers of the Coen brothers.
Watts set out to blend a coming-of-age story (à la Stand By Me and the Amblin Entertainment movies of yore) with a leaner, meaner thriller evocative of the old Westerns.
So far, so good — the boys' lighthearted adventure, as they play at adulthood while careening across the flatlands, has been rightfully compared to "Stand By Me."
Like a cross between Stand by Me and No Country for Old Men, Cop Car puts Harrison and Travis through a gauntlet of dangerous situations that force them to grow up in a hurry, and watches as they mostly fail, with disastrous consequences.
Imagine Stand by Me directed by the Coen brothers circa Blood Simple.
“Cop Car” is unlike most traditional neo-noirs in that it flips the script by centering on two innocent kids instead of the typical, morally gray protagonist, like if the gang from “Stand by Me” had discovered Anton Chigurh’s briefcase of money and kept it for themselves.
Co-written and directed by Jon Watts (who’s since been tapped to helm the next Spider-Man movie), Cop Car is a surprisingly nasty piece of work, more reminiscent of old John Dahl thrillers from the ’90s ( Red Rock West , The Last Seduction ) than of Let’s Be Cops .
And the skeptics are out in force: Comics history’s favorite web-slinger got his latest mulligan a mere three years ago with Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man, which was financially successful but a virtual critical nonentity.
Of course, as a calling card, it has worked tremendously well: Sony selected him to direct the reboot of The Amazing Spider-Man.