A couple kids steal the patrol car owned by the corrupt sheriff in Cop Car. Travis and Harrison (James Freedson-Jackson and Hays Wellford) are two young boys walking across the rural Colorado. The two come across an apparently abandoned cop car at the side of the road and, finding it unlocked, they decide to take the car for a joyride. However, the car’s owner Sheriff Kretzer (Kevin Bacon) was off doing a nefarious deed and, when he returns to find the car missing, he will go to any length to get the car back.
Cop Car is a relatively small-scale thriller, focusing primarily on the two boys adventures in the stolen police car and Sheriff Kretzer’s efforts to get the car back at all costs. Other than those three characters, the film also feature a woman (Camryn Manheim), who witnesses the boy’s joyriding, as well as a mysterious man (Shea Whigham), who befriend’s the boys, despite having some ambiguous motivations.
Cop Car is a demonstration of how a lot can be done with very little. There comes a point in the film when the two boys find and begin playing with the guns in the police car and it is quite tense watching them figure out how to use them, all while pointing the guns in the wrong directions. While Sheriff Kretzer is without a doubt a bad man, it remains ambiguous whether he wants to hurt the boys or if he just wants to get his car back, before they discover its dark secrets. Altogether, Cop Car is a pretty well executed low-key thriller.
★ ★ ★ ★ | LIKED IT
Screenings:
- Tue, July 28, 7:15 PM – Concordia Hall Theatre
- Wed, Aug 5, 9:30 PM – J.A. De Seve Theatre