Movie Review: The Newton Boys (1998)

Based on real events, The Newton Boys is a lighthearted drama about a band of brothers from rural Texas who robbed banks at will without hurting anyone in the early 1920s. Despite decent style, the movie never moves beyond perfunctory "good old boys" elements.

In rural Texas, Willis Newton (Matthew McConaughey) comes from a family of horse trainers. Recently released from prison for a crime he claims not to have committed, Willis joins career criminals Slim (Charles Gunning) and Glassock (Dwight Yoakam) in what proves to be a botched daytime bank robbery. Willis decides he can do better leading his own gang, and buys a list of bank safes that can be exploded open with nitroglycerin. He adopts the attitude that the banks and insurance companies are all corrupt, and that he is just a small thief stealing from bigger thieves.

Working with Glassock and eventually recruiting his brothers Joe (Skeet Ulrich), Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Dock (Vincent D'Onofrio), the Newton Boys successfully hit a succession of banks in various cities, all at night, and with plenty of guns but minimal violence. Willis meets and falls in love with Louise (Julianna Margulies) and tries to reinvent himself as an honest oilman, but has to admit that he is better at crime than anything else. But with the banks strengthening their safe security, the robberies start to get more complicated.

Director Richard Linklater tries his hand at a period piece, and does not do so well. The Newton Boys aims at a Bonnie And Clyde vibe without the violence, but instead delivers a frivolous piece celebrating charismatic hold-ups by characters who remain caricatures. There is plenty of 1920s style on display and the film generally looks attractive, but in the absence of depth behind the costumes, it devolves into a repetitive series of robberies by faceless and interchangeable men. The film is not helped by a cluttered cast that features plenty of side characters, including criminals, bankers, insurance agents and law enforcement types who come and go while contributing little.

The context and motivations start and stop with Willis Newton's Robin Hood-inspired philosophy that it's alright to rob banks because banks are corrupt and insurance companies anyway need robberies to sustain their business. It's a simple message for times that were perhaps simpler, but it's insufficient to sustain the film's two hours. The rest of the Newtons range from the charming Jesse (an animated Ethan Hawke) to the worrywart Jess and lughead Dock, and they all remain barely defined people, generally standing aside as the safes blow open with loud bangs.

There are a few good set pieces, including a particularly chaotic money-transfer hold-up in Toronto that descends into a well-executed farce. The romance elements fare much worse, with Louise easily falling under Willis' sweet talking spell and deluding herself that he is a businessman. Once she confronts the truth, Louise's role becomes to whine incessantly for her man to stop doing what he does best.

With jovial bluegrass music adding to the sense of flippancy, The Newton Boys is flighty film that unfortunately fails to impress.

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Movie Review: Sling Blade (1996)

A rural drama about a mentally handicapped killer attempting to reintegrate back into the fabric of a small town, Sling Blade features a superlative Billy Bob Thornton performance and an unsettling mood of surface normalcy building to a quiet boil.

The story is set in rural Arkansas. As a young and none-too-bright teenager, Karl Childers killed his mother and her lover with a sling blade (handle like an axe, blade curved like a banana) when he caught them in the act of having sex. Incarcerated for years in a mental institution, the adult Karl (Thornton) has now served his sentence and is released back into the community. He has a lumbering gait and a distinctive monotonal speech pattern, his sentence pauses frequently filled with "mmm-hmmm" sounds and most of his phrases starting with "I reck'n".

Karl makes his way to his home town, and befriends a young teenager called Frank (Lucas Black), who is being raised by his mother Linda (Natalie Canerday). Frank's father killed himself, and Linda is now dating the boorish and abusive Doyle (Dwight Yoakam). Karl finds employment at a small engine repair shop, and is introduced to Linda's good friend and boss, the openly gay Vaughan (John Ritter). Karl remains haunted by a childhood trauma, and pays a visit to his elderly father (Robert Duvall), now living in decrepit conditions. Although Karl's reintroduction into town appears to be generally going well, Doyle's utterly selfish behaviour and mistreatment of Frank threaten to disrupt Karl's new life.

Directed by Thornton, Sling Blade is a small, independent film with a big impact. Thornton immediately catapulted himself into stardom by carefully assembling a quiet, often quaint film, but with a pervasive sense of potential danger lurking around the unkempt corners of southern smallville, USA. Karl carries a dangerous past, but he is a product of his culture and upbringing. Religious zealotry, infanticide and domestic violence fed by a lack of education travel along with the seemingly docile winds of his home town.

The film unfolds with a measured pace. The first chapter at the mental hospital introduces Karl through the device of an interview he gives to a high school newspaper, and in an astounding one-take scene Karl recounts his story with a chilling combination of innocence, awareness and stark honesty. The middle third introduces the town and the characters within it, and they generally open their hearts and homes, for the most part welcoming Karl despite his past. The final act builds towards Karl forming an exceptionally strong bond with young Frank, and understanding his purpose in life.

The film never wavers in tone but it also starts to telegraph its intentions relatively early. Doyle as the antagonist (Dwight Yoakam nailing a despicable low-life) is a version of Karl who has yet to commit the crime that will send him to an institution, but he's getting close. The confrontation between the two men with Frank's future at stake is predictable, and Thornton sees it through to the end.

The screen character of Karl Childers is unforgettable. Thornton brings to life a seemingly docile, slow, dim-witted man who has killed out of ignorance, grown up behind the walls of an institution and is now asked to go out and survive in the real world. Thornton delivers mannerisms, speech patterns and pauses that recall Hoffman's stellar turn as Charlie Babbitt in Rain Man, only more tortured and living with a legacy of a history most violent.

Sling Blade explores the origins and consequences of evil, and finds fertile grounds where death and redemption flourish side by side.

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