For people of a certain age, author Joe R. Lansdale will likely always be best known as the writer of some of the best Jonah Hex comic books of the ’90s, a series of horror-tinged Western escapades that mixed and matched genre signposts with thrilling abandon. Of course, Lansdale has written numerous other short stories, novels, and screenplays over the course of a long, productive career. His penchant for hard-boiled dialogue, twisty plotting, and Western iconography has led to fine adaptations, like the streaming series Hap & Leonard and the underrated Jim Mickle film Cold in July. The Thicket, adapted by Chris Kelley from Lansdale’s book of the same name and directed by Elliot Lester, keeps the winning streak alive with a tough, tense chase thriller; it’s a woolly, weird, and occasionally brutal tale, constructed mostly via familiar story beats but made volatile by an appealing roster of offbeat characters and excellent cinematography by Guillermo Garza.
As the film begins, Lula Parker (Esmé Creed-Miles) and her brother Jack (Levon Hawke) are leaving their small Texas town to go live with an unseen extended family member. It’s a desolate journey, and they are immediately set upon by Cut Throat Bill (Juliette Lewis) and her gang of dangerous outlaws. Bill leaves Jack for dead and kidnaps Lula, although for what purpose it’s initially unclear. Eventually, Jack comes to and begins a desperate search for his sister. He comes across bounty hunter Reginald Jones (Peter Dinklage) and his partner Eustace (Gbenga Akinnagbe), guns for hire who also do manual labor to earn a quick buck. Jones is introduced via an altercation with a rich asshole who refuses to pay him an agreed upon sum for some grave-digging work, then insults his diminutive stature. Jones — quick with his fists and handy with a knife — wounds and humiliates the man, who in turn sends The Deasy Brothers Malachi (Macon Blair) and Simon (Metallica front man James Hetfield) after Jones and Eustace. And so, what we have is a series of people chasing other people, most of whom are armed with murderous intent; Bill is on a mission to deliver Lula to the titular Thicket, while Jack, Reginald, and Eustace follow behind, Jack determined to save his kin and Reginald in search of the bounty on Bill. The Deasys are tasked with returning Reginald to their boss, presumably for a hanging. Tensions are high, even amongst ostensible allies, and everybody is looking for an angle.
These are obviously familiar archetypes that Lester is working with, but everything is brought to vivid life via razor-sharp writing, which is full of quirks and odd details that liven up the proceedings. The film bounces back and forth between its various plot points, having the disparate groups interact only in fleeting moments. Instead, there are plenty of detours along the way; Jack visits a whorehouse and saves Jimmie Sue (Leslie Grace) from a particularly nasty pimp, while an unexpected turn of events makes one of the Deasy brothers an unlikely ally to our ramshackle gang of anti-heroes. Dinklage is phenomenal as a man used to being disregarded and underestimated due to his height, and Lewis (replete with grotesque scars that situate her as something like a kissing cousin to Hex) matches him with her snarling, ferocious take on Bill. The two only share one scene together, but it’s a legitimate barn-burner, featuring two weary outsiders ostracized from polite society and angry at the world in their own very different ways. And all of this builds to a grand finale where not everyone survives; indeed, one of the film’s strengths is its genuine unpredictability. Anyone can die at any moment, the bad guys are given moments of quiet tenderness, and the good guys go to extremely violent ends to get what they want. It’s a vast moral abyss, matched by the barren landscapes that constantly dwarf the characters. Of course, it would be overstating things to suggest that The Thicket is in the conversation to be considered one of the great Westerns, but there are at least traces of Robert Aldrich’s philosophical misanthropy here, as well as Nicholas Ray and André de Toth’s understanding that the environment itself is as important as the characters on screen. The unforgiving, inhospitable land these people traverse is ultimately an extension of their own black hearts and the rot hidden away just under the surface of civilization. The Thicket is low-budget fare done right, and an unexpected delight for viewers of a certain persuasion.
DIRECTOR: Elliot Lester; CAST: Peter Dinklage, Juliette Lewis, Esme Creed-Miles, Macon Blair, Levon Hawke; DISTRIBUTOR: ddd; IN THEATERS: September 6; RUNTIME: 1 hr. 48 min.
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