Movie Review: "Easy Does It" (2020)
Easy Does It Movie Review
Written by Stuart D. Monroe
Released by Worklight Pictures / Elysian Fields
Directed by Will Addison
Written by Will Addison and Ben Matheny
2020, 95 minutes, Not Rated
Starring:
Linda Hamilton as King George
Ben Matheny as Jack Buckner
Matthew Paul Martinez as Scottie Aldo
Cory Dumesnil as Collin Hornsby
Bryan Batt as Officer Owens
Susan Gordon as Blue Eyes
The American Dream (capitalization very necessary) is elusive. It’s also different for everyone; no two people have the exact same definition of what it actually is. The beauty of the American Dream is that it’s a lot easier to achieve if you have a solid plan and some intelligent forethought, but you can also achieve it through sheer force of will and simultaneously do your best impersonation of the proverbial bull in the china shop. That’s the real moral of the story in Easy Does It.
Jack Buckner (Ben Matheny; American Horror Story) and Scottie Aldo (Matthew Paul Martinez) are true partners in petty crime, running small con jobs and hopping from scam to scam. Jack dreams of bigger things, of his own version of the American Dream- a cache of buried treasure left under a San Clemente pier by his mother when he was just a kid. Scottie has nothing better to do (in classic best buddy fashion), so the friends hit the road. Chasing the American Dream is easier said than done when you’re up to your eyeballs in debt to the local matriarch of all things criminal- the sinister King George (Linda Hamilton; Terminator, T2: Judgment Day) and her upright attack dog, the bat-swinging Blue Eyes (Susan Gordon; Ginger). Jack and Scottie are now the King’s number one target, and their quest for the American Dream just got a lot more dangerous. Good thing they’re too dumb to know it. Their accidental hostage, Collin Hornsby (Cory Dumesnil), makes them look bright by comparison. God bless America!
Easy Does It is a throwback by design, a love letter to films like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Easy Rider, and Natural Born Killers. Throughout the 95-minute runtime are numerous scenes that echo memorable moments in those twisted journeys of self-discovery. That’s not to say that Easy Does It is derivative; it merely wears its influences proudly on its sleeve and knows exactly what it wants to achieve in showing the utter absurdity of the American Dream.
The energy in everyone’s collective performance is the engine driving Easy Does It to be one of the indie surprises of 2020. Even when the tone veers off and borders into the silly (which it does frequently), it often doubles around and hits you with some seriously disturbing and surprisingly graphic violence (I’m looking at you, Blue Eyes) or an equally surprising wave of tender nostalgia (that Roman candle fight hit me right in the childhood feels). Even the smaller parts, like the scene-stealing Bryan Batt (Mad Men) as Officer Owens, get a scene to make their own. It also doesn’t have to have a muscle car with a cool paint job, killer American road trip scenery, and a sun-drenched aesthetic.
Then there’s Linda Hamilton. While there’s no mistaking it’s her, she is still so completely transformed as King George that you’ll want to hit pause a minute to soak in every detail in her face. She’s that good, menacing in a Tarantino kind of way. It’s frankly one of the better castings I’ve seen in some time. Linda Hamilton brings insane credit to a movie full of talented young actors.
Easy Does It is erratic in its pacing at times and changes tone (and even genre) at occasionally dizzying pace, but it’s so solidly anchored by a killer score (from Patrick Carney of The Black Keys) and those wonderfully blended performances that it takes its own unique place amongst ‘70s road flicks about that mythical dream that we are all, to some degree, chasing after just as hard as Jack and Scottie.
Easy Does It is available in theaters and on demand on July 17th
