Directed and written by David McCracken, Bullitt County is an independent movie that really surprised me. Actually, surprises just kept coming and almost all of them were quite positive. You can immediately feel that dark, almost Coen brothers vibe that permeates every aspect of this movie, laced with strange humor. I would say that Blood Simple vibes are the closest, but we also have here Fargo and as a bonus, No Country for Old Men vibes flowing. However, there are a couple of things we must discuss and the first of them is editing. There’s one scene that’s pretty lame, but the rest of them vary from standard issue to really epic, especially those combined shots that feel like they belong in some much more expensive movie. This helps so much with the pacing that’s the biggest problem of this movie. And that problem is connected to another problem regarding character development, but those two problems actually create a solution, making this whole thing quite complicated. This is something that we will discuss later in the review. So, what the fuck is Bullitt County? It’s a fucked up thriller about four friends and adventures they will have in the aforementioned county. Featuring interesting characters, great story and a lot of effort, it’s a fun movie to start off your movie night.
It is the year of our Lord Satan 1977 and three friends are getting ready for a kidnapping. They are actually kidnapping their fourth friend, Gordie, whom they haven’t seen in a long time. They were quite the crew back in the day, with Robin and Keaton leading the pack. Wayne is the quiet one, always lurking in the background. All of them gathered for a bachelor party, but after Gordie finds out about the buried treasure in a local antique shop, their priorities change. While camping in the forest and looking for a lot of money buried somewhere around here during the prohibition era, they meet the Hitchens, an elderly couple living nearby. This is where things start to get complicated.
Speaking of complicated, after that meeting, the movie really sped up, making the last half of it very interesting with a lot of twists and turns. This is that pacing problem where the first half of the movie is kinda slow mostly because character development is also kinda slow and strange. This wouldn’t be such a problem if this was a much more experienced crew with a lot of money, but that is not the case. Unfortunately, some of the viewers may find that part of the movie boring. I think they tried to do that loop thing where the character development is only fully realized in the very finale of the movie, changing your perspective on the rest of it and tying in nicely with a second viewing that may seem like a whole different movie. If this works, you get one hell of a movie, however here it’s still rather clunky, but this just proves that this crew is capable of great things and that you should keep an eye on their future projects. I already mentioned that two problems created a solution and that solution ties in with that clunkiness, making Bullitt County strangely authentic. We always get these polished products that hit all the right spots at the right times, making us feel good but that’s not life. Life is more clunky and random, something that sort of happens because we all have different perspectives on the same reality. Or maybe I was just too high when I was watching this movie.
Director: David McCracken
Writer: David McCracken
Cast: Mike C. Nelson, Jenni Melear, David McCracken, Napoleon Ryan, Dorothy Lyman, Richard Riehle, Alysia Livingston
Fun Facts: For research, David McCracken and Josh Riedford completed both the Kentucky Bourbon Trail and the Craft Distillery Trail within a two-month period.
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IMDb Link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6140148/
