Cop Car (Movie Review)

Truth be told, I’m a Kevin Bacon fan. From Footloose to The Following I really love watching him, so when I heard that he was set to star in a new thriller, I was intrigued. And that was before I knew the premise. Travis and Harrison are ten, and they have decided to run away from home. Leaving behind their loved ones and their pets, the boys set off in the Colorado wilderness with no clear destination in mind. When the boys find an abandoned police cruiser –with the keys in the visor - they think it’s their lucky day. Little do they know they have stumbled into a situation far more dangerous than they could imagine.

In an effort to avoid any major spoilers, suffice it to say that Cop Car is something like a combination between Joy Ride and Rare Exports, though it resembles the latter primarily in tone. In the beginning, the two boys are having a great time, totally unaware of the potential danger that they are in. The dialogue for the boys feels very natural, a combination of innocent silliness and gruff posturing that will likely feel true to many viewers who have ever spent time as a little boy. And the boys themselves deserve major credit for their performances. Both first-time actors, James Freedson-Jackson and Hays Wellford seem like they are just two friends who are being followed around with a camera. Their line delivery easily helping the audience forget that what we’re watching is just a movie. And these childish antics enable the movie to begin building suspense in some fairly unconventional ways as the movie moves forward. If you’ve ever met a ten-year-old boy, you are well aware that they aren’t always the most careful creatures; scenes where the two play with loaded guns and puzzle over a defibrillator are at once silly and stressful.

And the puzzle pieces that are outside of the boys’ awareness are equally as anxiety-inducing. Kevin Bacon turns in a solid performance as a slightly unhinged and menacing officer of the law who seems to be living way too far on the wrong side of the thin blue line. The fact that very little of his storyline and circumstances are explained just furthers this tension, keeping the audience on their toes about his intentions and just how far he’ll go to realize them.

The aesthetic of this movie is also beautiful, thanks in large part to the setting of plains and mountains that manage to make the world of the movie feel both expansive and claustrophobic. Writer/Director Jon Watts has a visual style of shooting that makes just about every scene stunning to look at, with one mesmerizing shot at the end of police lights on a pitch black road that is absolutely gorgeous.

A horror movie this is not, but if you are looking for an indie thriller and you like a nice slow burn, than you are in for a treat with Cop Car.