Outlaws and Angels

LJ'S QUICK MOVIE REVIEW:

"Outlaws and Angels", directed by JT Mollner, is a Western that takes place in the unforgiving American frontier. It follows the story of three wanted bank robbers that take refuge in a troubled family's home.

The movie's script features violence, crime, love, and revenge. As the movie progresses, the seemingly ordinary characters reveal darker and freakish sides to their lives. Emphasis is put on cynicism, human fears, and role of women in Western society. However, several characters never get the screen time they deserve. Their transformations often feel rushed and awkward.

Visually, the movie captures the essence of a Western. The colors and tone used in the film make for a very immersive experience. The movie is also shot using 35mm film, which adds to the gritty and grainy feel. Clearly, a great deal of effort was put into the detailed set-pieces, costumes, and makeup.

Overall, "Outlaws and Angels" is a movie with intriguing characters and high-quality visuals, but the flaws in its script and editing slightly compromise the experience.

LJ's Grade: C , 6.4/10

To be honest, Django Unchained and the Hateful Eight are better Westerns and were both released recently.

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The present movie is the final elaboration of a shorter piece called 'Henry John and the Little Bug', released about seven years ago by the same Author, JT Mollner, a peculiar kind of film maker.

The final full-length result is peculiar too, but very well acted and very well written. It deals with miserable beings living miserable lives and is a paradigmatic story of how misery, love and egoism can bring anyone to perdition, given the wrong circumstances.

There isn't much pity in Author's heart for his own characters and not many of them will make it through the end. But there is love, as in any great artist's eye, even though of a strange and desperate sort.

Besides writer/director JT Mollner deciding to create his own unique vision of a western where the three fugitive bank robbers hold a preacher named George Tildon (Ben Browder), his wife Ada (Teri Polo) and two daughters hostage the bank robbers have a continuing dwindling posse chasing them and the story just gets weirder and weirder.

The posse chasing the bank robbers is led by Josiah (Luke Wilson) who tries to lead his posse through intimidation and with idle threats but quite frankly he cannot even protect himself from of all people, the preachers half dead wife? Then there is the leader of the bank robbers named Henry (played by Chad Michael Murray) who takes a shining to the preacher's youngest daughter Florence Tildon (Francesca Eastwood) who has some secrets she wants to share with Henry.

In other real suspense films, the director/editor will purposely lower the actors voice so as to hold the audience's attention but this director, JT Mollner took this approach to extreme with his star Henry (Chad Michael Murray). Not only does Henry's voice come to almost a whisper, he mumbles most of his dialogue such that I thought the film would need to include sub titles because the quiet language Henry was whispering/mumbling was certainly not English no matter how many times I attempted to rewind what the heck he was mumbling.

If you enjoy seeing faces and heads being riddled with bullets and brain matter landing on the shooters own face then maybe you could be remotely satisfied. Or maybe incest, or male on male anal sex is your thing, then this film may appeal to you. I found it disgusting for a western and I do not object to violence just to sensationalism for garnering false attention. The dialogue was also very boring and extremely slow moving but I still hung in there which is why I did not rate the film any lower than a 4 out of 10. At least the ending was a bit of a surprise which I will not divulge so that you can also sit through the entire film and see if you agree or disagree with my review.

Personally, I was enthralled with this Western from the start and stayed that way. It delivers twists and turns that keep you planted to your chair, and after reading some of the reviews of others, I was surprised at the 'nic picking' that went on while comparing it with the 'Hateful Eight". This movie stands on its own, and if H8 hadn't of been out, then I feel the reviews would have been more favourable. I thought it was great...it certainly turned corners and ventured into areas that would/or may offend others, yet being a lover of good movies, this 'epic' kept me glued to the screen. It is certainly well worth the watch, so you can determine for yourself.

JT Mollner musta honed his writer / director skills in the eight years tween his 2016 debut "Outlaws And Angels" and his follow-up "Strange Darling", as the latter thriller rocks, but the former western is flawed & overlong. In 1887 New Mexico, Chad Michael Murray's violent bank robbing gang (inc Keith Loneker & Steven Michael Quezada) evade lawman Luke Wilson (solid) by holding up in the remote homestead of Ben Browder, Teri Polo and their teenage girls Francesca Eastwood (good) & Madisen Beaty... where tones & elements of "The Beguiled" & "Deliverance" unfold, tho way too sluggishly. It carries Mollner's distinctive style ok, but "Strange Darling" it ain't.