Review - Cold in July

Cold In July

This film surprised me immensely thanks to the promotion for the film, which tells you hardly anything about the film.
Cold in July is a American crime drama, directed by Jim Mickle and starring Michael C. Hall, Sam Shepard and Don Johnson, based on a novel of the same name by Joe R. Lansdale.
The film is about Richard Dane (Michael C. Hall) who kills an intruder in his house, and has to reap the vengeance of the killer's father, Ben Russel (Sam Shepard)  who wants revenge on Richard's family, this is all I knew about the film going into it, but that is only the start of the film, the set-up for the real plot of the film, which follows Richard suspecting the cops hiding something from him which leads into something much more complicated. The film feels like a few different genres in one, it starts as a thriller goes into a detective story and then finishes on an slasher/action feel,  but it doesn't feel messy going from genre to genre it feels very organic and works perfectly. The standout performance in the film was the character Jim Bob Luke (Don Johnson) who is a detective who helps Ben and Richard solve the conspiracy around them, the character comes in at the start of the second act and brings a fresh new life into the film, a new positive, witty character that changes the film we are watching.

The music used in the film is very effective and emphasizes the emotion going into the film at that point, especially during Don Johnson's introduction, in which country music is playing out of his Cherry red car and you already know something about the character before he has even spoken.
I've talked a lot about Don Johnson's performance but the other two leads are very good also, Michael C. Hall's acting in the film is something completely different then his Dexter character and shows a different range of acting from Hall. Sam Shepard play a very threatening character and does so very well, and while scary you can also sympathize with him.

Cold in July is a great, thriller film that just keeps on changing genre and while doing that, becomes more interesting, my only problem with the film is that there are a few plot threads left dangling at the end of the film that needed to conclude.

4/5

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