Bizarre enough to be enjoyable even if this movie is a bonfire fueled by the DNA of five different movies.
Burning it’s way into theaters and HBO Max this week is Taylor Sheridan’s sophomore directorial effort, Those Who Wish Me Dead. A movie about many things and many characters in one of the most strange, bizarre, but surprisingly enjoyable films in recent memory. Starring Angelina Jolie as a survival expert protecting a child in the crosshairs of assassin brothers, Those Who Wish Me Dead places it’s cast within the radius of a raging forest fire and entangles their storylines through ash and gunpowder. It doesn’t always work, and Sheridan bites off much more than he can chew, but it results in one of the most bizarre movies in recent memory in the most enjoyable way possible.
As clinical as Sheridan was with Wind River, where he breathed a chilly breath onto failed infrastructures covering Native American people, Those Who Wish Me Dead is anything but clinical. It’s reminiscent of a small-timey blockbuster perfectly suited for the small screen back in the early 2000s. It has the right amount of thrill with just enough camp to create a bizarre concoction of overt silliness and thoughtfulness. There are far too many scenes that don’t belong, and sometimes it feels like you’re watching multiple movies at once, but it manages to work for the most part. Not sure if I could attribute this to the writing, because it’s easily Sheridan’s worst script, but it comes down to the editing overall. When you think the next cut should toss us right back into the thrill, it doesn’t. It feels inconsistent and it becomes an annoyance because the potential is visibly there with a refined vision.
In a way, Sheridan has adopted his own sense of elevating the American hero. It’s apt, sometimes unsubtle, but it’s rooted in creating that American identity we closely associate the everyday hero with. Low angle shots of Jon Bernthal’s police officer, Ethan, gets an American flag in the background. The music elevates and fire trucks and emergency response vehicles race to the rescue amidst natural disaster. This is mutual to all of his scripts, especially with something as recent as Hell or High Water. A movie that recontextualizes the aged cops/robbers dynamic to address America’s ass backwards financial systems. It’s taut, rigid, and well versed, but this is anything but that. Not that it has to be, it’s a different type of movie, but it’s an unclear mess. It’s enjoyable to watch it unfold, but sometimes it’s better off wondering if we could fold it back up before we see the bigger picture.
As promising as this was, with the talent involved, and a less distinct Taylor Sheridan perspective, Those Who Wish Me Dead is a movie struggling to come together. It feels like five movies in one, and the performances or text isn’t rich enough to make it worth much of anything. It’s impossible to recommend because it is neither a thrilling action movie or a gripping drama. The material just isn’t there to be a great movie, not even a good one, and the editing is public enemy No.1. It’s genuinely difficult to explain how weird this movie is that you really have to see it to understand it. It has just enough fun factor to be a relatively enjoyable experience, but at the expense of anything remotely memorable or clever. Feels like a movie that’ll come and go without a second thought by June.
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