Lawless
2012115 minutes
rated R
by Scott Mendelson
Twenty years ago, a film as formulaic and frankly contrived as John Hillcoat's Lawless would be considered nothing more than a pretty lousy B-movie that happened to have a few decent actors in the mix. And today that is the best I can say about the film, even if its pedigree might have originally positioned it as some kind of Oscar bait. The film can either be read as straight-ahead manly action drama or it can be viewed as a piece of political propaganda, positioning the noble 'regular Americans' against openly corrupt federal government forces who threaten their freedom to uh... bootleg. I frankly hope the film is indeed intended to be read as such, as I'll take a bad film that's at least about 'something' over a pointless exercise in he-man violence. At the very least, it stands as John Hillcoat's happiest film yet. Unlike The Proposition or The Road, you won't exit theaters in a soul-crushing funk. But unlike those two films, it's not a very good movie at all. I suppose that's the trade-off, no? Still, either way, Lawless is depressing all the same.
