Review #806: 'Cold in July' (2014)

Cold in July is a film all about mood. Continuing the recent trend of all things 80's, the film harks back to the splurge of American neo-noir popular in the late 80's and early 1990's, where, usually, a simple man is caught up in crime, corruption or a dangerous woman (or all three) and ends up way out of his depth. Usually set in America's Southern states, these films explored what it is to be a man. Based on author John R. Lansdale's novel, Cold in July delves into similar themes, but often gets so caught up in drenching the film in atmosphere that it loses track of it's own story.

It starts out relatively simply as Michael C. Hall's protective father Richard wakes up in the middle of the night as an intruder breaks into his home. Shaky and nervous, Richard shoots the young man dead and is congratulated by detective Ray (co-writer Nick Damici), who reassures him that sometimes the good guy wins. At the intruder's funeral, Richard is approached by the father Russel (Sam Shepard), fresh out of prison, who makes a passive threat to Richard's wife and child. Russel begins a tirade of threats and intimidation, eventually being arrested and left for dead by the police on a train track. Puzzled at the cops' eagerness to be rid of Russel, Richard saves him and delves deeper into the case, and the two find out they have more in common than initially thought.

Darkly photographed and set to a synthesised score, Cold in July certainly looks and feels like the movies and era it's paying homage to. We glimpse chunky early mobile phones, Michael C. Hall sports an unflattering mullet-and-moustache combo, and 80's favourite Don Johnson - enjoying a career revival of late - shows up as private investigator Jim Bob to grant the film some much needed energy and humour. While director Jim Mickle, who made the excellent and surprisingly brutal Stake Land (2010), is clearly enjoying tipping his hat to the era, plot strands fizzle out to the point where they are forgotten entirely and the camera is consistently restless. He has the actors and the story to tell, so simply point the camera and let things naturally fall into place.

But when it's good, it's absolutely riveting. Shepard is a terrorising yet stoic presence, and Hall shows that there is more to him than David Fisher and Dexter, proving a solid leading man despite an uncomplimentary appearance. The film is drenched in sleaze, and it's Texas setting is a bleak and beautiful place for a simple man to find his inner animal. But the film ultimately feels like it's going nowhere fast. The genre hardly calls for it so character development is virtually non-existent, but the plot leads to vastly different places so fast you'll wonder how you got there. I was constantly caught up in what I was watching, but by the end credits I was left hanging for a satisfaction that would never come.


Directed by: Jim Mickle
Starring: Michael C. Hall, Sam Shepard, Don Johnson, Wyatt Russell, Nick Damici
Country: USA/France

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie