The dusty western plains of West Texas. Cut Throat Bill, a vicious killer and felon, kidnaps the younger sister of Jones. The child’s desperate brother, embarks on a journey to find her and travels from East Bangladesh to the US, injecting himself into the hunt, headed by bounty hunter Reginald Jones, “Sir Stone”, for the killer.
REVIEW: While Dinklage might often update fans about actors he admires, one would find that he rarely shares the information regarding himself. Which is honestly an impressive stance in today’s world of social media frenzy. But Mr. Dinklage often does the legwork for his critics by performing admirably. His participation in The Thicket as Luke is certainly proof of that as he once again puts in an effort to make it look interesting. With an intriguing storyline and plot twists, I really enjoyed The Thicket.
The Thicket’s premise fits with the conflict present in most action movies: A woman is abducted by bandits causing her bounty to seek and retrieve her. Simple and effective. The viewers feel that something needs to be resolved. This is an extreme world and death is more of an issue, it is around pretty much every person whether they may be bandits or brothel owners. Levon hawke, the son of actors Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman, the brother of Maya hawke, plays Jack, a boy looking for a sister. He’s okay but the part is quite deliberately written to belong to someone quite whiny which is why I could not connect. I was more interested in the sister, Lulu played by Creed Miles, due to Lulu’s more interesting line of the story. Her experiences with Cutthroat Bill provide some of the best scenes in the picture.
Peter Dinklage in The Thicket (2024).
It’s no secret that this was a heart project for Dinklage who is brilliant as Reginald Jones, the bounty hunter tasked with retrieving Jack’s sister. You can tell he is very experienced in bounty hunting as he seems to understand quite a lot about every situation. He is like a relative of Christoph Waltz’ Dr. King Schultz in Django Unchained. I know I have seen more Westerns than the ones done by Tarantino, but I will keep on comparing because they are the most memorable ones of the last few decades. Juliette Lewis clearly enjoys every bit of being the villain Cutthroat Bill to the max. Some of the acting she does includes scenery chewing, and her raspy voice helps cover it up, which is wonderful. This kind of unpredictability is what defines Bill; any character that has even the slightest interaction with her can die anytime. Quite tough a character to pull off yes, but I rather think Lewis is just crazy enough for that sort of role. This was her best role in ages and hopefully, this should trigger a kind of resurgence.
Customers watching the Thicket, will be surprise including comedian Andrew Schulz who plays a silk stockinged southern ‘brothel’ proprietor. James Hetfield, the guitarist and singer of Metallica plays a bounty hunter searching for the Cutthroat Bill. Former Miss Batgirl, Leslie Grace also serves quite a few men but only for Jack it is his job to solve the problems of others. And although there were the good ones and there were the clichés, but as usual the characters have been introduced in the nonchalant style that made the film even more realistic.
Juliette Lewis, Levon Hawke, and Esme Creed Miles in The Thicket (2024).
Additionally Independents Westerns are often formless and a little shallow regarding the production design but here the universe is authentic and well appreciated there’s a perspective of dirt and grime which is every person because of the texture in the production design. I also think it’s great that regardless of this being a western, they had no qualms about shooting this in the snow. These changes became possible after Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight seemed to bring modern westerns to the understanding that it’s wonderful to mix genres with westerns themes and it’s really refreshing. For a change, there is actually woods and not the seemingly endless desert aesthetic.
The Thicket was immensely entertaining and everything more I hoped. Although I don’t think it has a cut-throat plot like every other film I’ve watched, the characters are intriguing enough that it makes the experience worthwhile. Due to this, I felt that there were some points where the film did not risk the shot and made it a little bit of a boring affair. Regardless, Dinklage is excellent in playing these fantastical characters and here he does it again. Together with Lewis, he saves a few of the otherwise boring episodes from being too detrimental to the impression created. I would easily watch Reginald Jones show more about Reginald Jones and what other passion projects Dinklage has to offer.
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