Spinning wheels
COP CAR | Kevin Bacon stars in a terrific road-movie thriller by the director of the next Spider-Man.
“When I was a kid, I’d go into a field with my friends and just walk in a direction, hoping The Goonies would happen to us, that we’d stumble across that pirate treasure or find something that allowed us to build that crazy glowing spaceship from Explorers. You’re hoping you’re going to stumble into an Amblin film...”
There’s a point to writer-director Jon Watts’ ramblings about his youth in Fountain, Colorado, and it soon becomes clear when you watch the opening of his Sundance hit Cop Car: two kids ( James Freedson-Jackson, Hays Wellford) wandering in, yes, Fountain, Colorado and stumbling upon the unattended titular vehicle. A-ha – this is the Amblin-flavoured movie that his 10-year-old self never stumbled into, yes? Well, almost…
“Probably, unconsciously, that informed the movie and its tone, but the truth of it is you’re in the real world,” Watts says. “So yes, it may initially be cool that you find a police car that has the keys in it, but then you have to ask the next question – whose car is it and why is it out there? Suddenly you go from an escapist, magical adventure to all these issues...”
Well, it turns out that the car belongs to Sheriff Kretzer (a moustachioed Kevin Bacon in his most memorable turn for years) and he’s not a good guy. With him into the story come drugs, a dead body, and a nasty surprise that lurks in the trunk of the car. So what started off as a wind-in-the-hair joyride for the boys turns into a life-and-death chase. Those Goonies might have found themselves in danger but they never had to handle live firearms as bodies dropped around them.
The result is a taut, spare, suspense-fuelled thriller, so don’t be fooled by the bizarre decision to release straight to DVD in the UK. Low on dialogue, high on action and splattered with macabre humour, Cop Car was correctly described as “B-movie gold” by industry magazine Variety (which also, ironically, labelled it “an easily marketable genre exercise”), and its accomplished shot-making evokes such calling-card movies as Spielberg’s Duel and the Coens’ Blood Simple. Don’t just take our word
‘It’s important to remember what you felt as a kid’ jon watts
for it – Marvel took one look and hired the 34-year-old director for its Spider-Man reboot starring Tom Holland.
“The idea of Peter Parker in high school is so fun,” says Watts, promising to apply techniques instigated on Cop Car to the pipelined blockbuster. “I think it’s always important to remember what you were actually thinking and feeling at the time, and to not project your adult feelings and thoughts and ideas backwards. That works for a 10-year-old and that also works for a 16-year-old in high school. What was actually going through your head at that time? What did you want to do? How did you think the world looked? That’s a really important part of telling a story like that.”