In the opening scene of Cop Car, its two protagonists, a pair of young boys named Travis (James Freedson-Jackson) and Harrison (Hays Wellford), walk through a picturesque field while saying cuss words. Travis picks the word, and then Harrison dutifully repeats it. Until they get to the F word, that is. Instead of repeating after Travis, Harrison pauses, causing Travis to get more forceful. “Say it,” he commands. Instead, Harrison shakes his head no and fearfully says in a hushed tone, “That’s the worst cuss.” In just this short scene we learn everything we need to know about the boys, and about the movie, which is all about delivering cinema goodness with economy and simplicity.
The story proper kicks off a few moments later when the boys come across a cop car abandoned out in that middle of the nowhere that their running away from home has led them into. At first the boys throw a rock at the car, then they dare each other to run up and touch it, then to check the doors to see if they’re open, and before you know it they’ve got the engine fired up, the cherries and berries lit up, and they’re taking the vehicle out for an off road joy ride. This is bad for them, because the car belongs to Sheriff Kretzer (Kevin Bacon), a drunken, dirty cop who only abandoned it momentarily so that he could take care of some seriously underhanded business, and who wants it back pronto.
Director Jon Watts (Clown) and his co-writer Christopher D. Ford (Robot & Frank) have structured Cop Car very much like classic noir. You’re introduced to a protagonist, that protagonist makes a morally compromised decision, and the consequences of that decision then sucks them into a downward spiral of danger and depravity, usually leading up to some kind of doomed ending. Because the two protagonists here are small children, you might be thinking that Cop Car offers up some kind of toothless, kiddy version of this traditional noir structure, like Kiss Me Deadly by way of ET or something, but there’s no Amblin style cuteness here. These boys get into some serious shit once they cross Bacon’s dangerous and unbalanced Sheriff, and after another deranged party played by Shea Whigham (an always awesome character actor whose name I’ve now finally taken the time to learn) enters the fray, things get even worse, all leading up to a finale that rivals anything from the classic age of noir in violence and bleakness.
That’s not to say that the kids act like adults after they’re put in a series of very adult situations though. One of the fun things about Cop Car is how well it understands the skewed way that little kids think, and how they often react to things emotionally in a different way than an adult would. A great bit comes after the boys have thrown the rock at the abandoned cop car and they both decide that they need to go and retrieve it afterward because it has their finger prints on it, which will likely lead to them getting caught. Kids. They’re so adorable when they’re not vandalizing and thieving. Of course, sometimes child actors can get too adorable, but Freedson-Jackson and Wellford don’t make us suffer through anything like that. The kids have spunk, but their performances manage to be natural and not cloying, despite their youth and inexperience.
Seeing as it tells a simple, effective story that properly builds its tension and stakes, step by step, to a satisfying climax, all in 88 minutes, there’s really no reason not to give Cop Car a try. It looks nice, its writing is subtle and insightful, and Kevin Bacon really goes full-on hillbilly scumbag with his performance. It’s a sight to behold, and probably the best thing he’s done since he completely wigged out and shaved half of his head while killing people in Death Sentence. Kevin Bacon killing people with a gleam of insanity in his eye is the best Kevin Bacon, bar maybe rebellious, dancing Kevin Bacon.
