What would you do if you were 10 or 11, running away from home with your best friend, in the middle of nowhere with nothing but a warm jacket and a slim jim to your name? That’s the situation of our two leads as they wander through the country, tryin to one up each other with curse words… until they wander upon a seemingly abandoned cop car and behave exactly as you would expect any children to behave… cautiously approaching the car and then pretending their cops, finally deciding to take the car for a joyride. What would you have done when you were 10? Would you have played cop and tried to find the siren? What if you got in and found the keys inside, as thought it was left there for you?
COP CAR is a simple premise told in beautiful simplicity – the universal, ultra-naiveté of children crossed with the worst possible adult scenario – two worlds clashing and ravaging each other. A brilliant feature from filmmaker Jon Watts, who you might know from 2014’s strange horror-flick CLOWN, COP CAR is utterly believable thanks to the simple writing and deft storytelling of Watts and company. The script is minimalistic to the supreme, with no unnecessary dialogue and an uncanny flair for dynamic action sequences.
None of it would work if the filmmakers had asked any less, or any more, of leads James Freedson-Jackson and Hays Wellford, who play youngsters Travis and Harrison respectively. Best friends who have decided to run away together, the opening scenes are all youthful innocence. Soon, though, the audience learns that the cop car for which the film is named is actually a highly damaging piece of evidence against Sheriff Kretzer, a highly corrupt officer who will stop at nothing to get back the car, and its contents.
Sheriff Kretzer is played by Kevin Bacon, who I swear just gets better and better the older he gets. Bacon shares little screen time with Wellford and Freedson-Jackson, but the boys and the Sheriff play brilliantly with each other, partly because of the beautifully built tension of the screenplay/editing, which shows us the danger the boys are in long before they realize what they’ve done.
COP CAR is a wonderful exercise in filmmaking, an example of what movies are supposed to be. Instead of spending time with needless exposition, Watts allows the story to unfold through simple actions, each framed brilliantly within the story and building upon the tension from the prior scene. Because of its simplicity, COP CAR achieves a level of realism and universality that is quite surprising, especially given almost nightmarish portrayal of the corrupt Sheriff. COP CAR is simply great cinema. I highly recommend it.
Video: (1080p Widescreen 2.39:1) The video presentation of COP CAR is actually quite nice, crisp and beautiful with a color palette that really suits the feel of the film.
Audio: (English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1) The audio mixing and presentation for COP CAR is understated and immersive, perfectly done to suit the mood and the intensity of the film.
Their First and Last Ride: The Making of COP CAR (02:58) Disappointingly the only special feature on the COP CAR Blu-ray, it plays more like a quick preview vignette than an actual ‘making-of’ feature.
The Blu-ray for COP CAR also comes with an UltraViolet DigitalHD Digital Copy.
