Tropic Sprockets / The Thicket

By Ian Brockway

Elliott Lester (Aftermath) takes the audience into the realm of the hard-bitten Western with “The Thicket.” Though the film feels a shade routine in its double-crossing deadpan gore, it contains apprehension and a fine sense of dramatic timing. More importantly, the film is bolstered by fine performances. [Showtimes and trailer at Tropiccinema.com.]

When a bitter gang member Billie (Juliette Lewis) kidnap siblings Jack (Levon Hawke) and Lula (Esme Creed-Miles) the pair are engaged in an existential fight for survival. Jack escapes by sheer luck while fainting and a dispassionate bounty hunter (Peter Dinklage) decides to take him along.

Meanwhile Lula does her best not to upset Billie.

Juliette Lewis is unrecognizable as the monstrous and sour faced outlaw Billie, complete with a deep demon-laced growl that would make Mercedes McCambridge proud.

The violence and gore push the boundary of taste just a bit. In one especially savage scene, a man’s bloody crotch is nailed to a table.

Every other scene contains a violent comeuppance, so much so that it becomes formulaic and pedestrian.

Still, the film has enough Grand Guignol pathos in Lewis and Dinklage to hold the action together.

It is quite true that there have been films very much in this hard unsentimental tone before from “True Grit” to “The Hateful Eight,” but Juliette Lewis’s singular demonic performance is enough to keep your popcorn firmly in place.

Write Ian at [email protected]

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