Did the Hollywood western truly die or has it simply morphed into something palatably contemporary? The days of stagecoaches, spurs, and Smith & Wessons may be long gone (I personally consider Clint Eastwood’s 1992 masterpiece Unforgiven to be the final word on the classic western), but the themes of isolation, lawlessness, and man’s propensity towards greed and violence are alive and well in neo-westerns like Hell or High Water, Logan, and Barret Mullholland’s feature directorial debut Last County.
Recovering alcoholic Abby (Kaelen Ohm) is on thin ice with her estranged husband Brian (Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll) months after she got into a car accident with their young daughter Grace (Antonia Battrick) in the back seat. Her hopes for a reconciliation at their remote vacation house are dashed when injured drug mules Bennet (Gord Rand) and Ephram (Keaton Kaplan) come barging in after a drug deal gone sour.
If this home invasion weren’t enough, it turns out the local cops led by Sheriff Bill (Nicholas Campbell) are after what remains of the drug cash and aren’t above collateral damage to get it. Through a combination of Stockholm Syndrome and sheer survival instinct, Abby is forced to team up with her captors in a desperate gambit to stay alive long enough to clear her name and see her family again. In unrelated news, Brian and Grace just happen to be on their way over and blissfully unaware of the R-rated mayhem that awaits them.
For his first time out in the feature director’s chair, Mullholland has a decent grasp on the genre, wasting little time in establishing the characters and setting up the appropriate story pins for them to knock down. We can safely cheer for Ohm’s protagonist and even Rand’s gray-shaded two-bit criminal while enthusiastically jeering Campbell’s sheriff and his rogues gallery of dastardly deputies (Weasel-faced Josh Cruddas once again steals every minute of screen time he’s in as Deputy Frank). The brief bursts of action are well-staged with one particular window-busting stunt claiming the highlight crown. This is one of those movies where every dollar of the budget ended up on screen and it’s all the better for it.
What the movie seems to be lacking is much of a character arc for Abby. She certainly summons laudable strength to extricate herself from her spiraling predicament, but fails to grow much or even emotionally register beyond basic audience empathy. It’s not the strongest endorsement for a movie when you feel a stronger urge at the end to watch a superior entry in the genre rather than recommend the one you just watched to friends.
Last County delivers well enough on the sizzle, even if the steak itself is a tad thin. Regardless, Mullholland shows more than enough promise as an auteur here that I eagerly look forward to his next cinematic meal which I have little doubt that the lessons learned from this one will make all the more satisfying.
7/10
Last County will be available on all major VOD platforms August 9