cassidy red movie review

The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News

Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter

site categories

‘cassidy red’: film review | dwf 2017.

Matt Knudsen’s female-driven Western ‘Cassidy Red’ co-stars Abigail Eiland, David Thomas Jenkins and Jason Grasl locked in a heated love triangle.

By Justin Lowe

Justin Lowe

• Share on Facebook
• Share to Flipboard
• Send an Email
• Show additional share options
• Share on LinkedIn
• Share on Pinterest
• Share on Reddit
• Share on Tumblr
• Share on Whats App
• Print the Article
• Post a Comment

As an alternate take on a male-driven genre, Matt Knudsen’s period Western features a female protagonist and plenty of talented women behind the scenes, but comes up short delivering on the expected character conflicts and action sequences. There are sufficient viewers, however, who might consider this approach intriguing enough to eventually seek out Cassidy Red on VOD or streaming platforms.

Not long after Mexico ceded large swaths of the Southwest and Arizona became a U.S. territory, settlers established the outpost of Ruby as a gold- and sliver-mining center. As the town took root, ancillary businesses sprang up, including the requisite saloons and bordellos, along with the marginally criminal types frequenting such establishments. Red-headed Josephine “Joe” Cassidy (Abigail Eiland ) emerges as a consequence of this dubious cultural development sometime in the 1850s , the illegitimate daughter of a bargirl and a bounty hunter.

Joe’s mother raises her in that house of ill repute, but when she’s preoccupied with customers, she sends Joe off to her father Cort’s (Rick Cramer) ranch, where she learns the essential skills of swearing and firearms handling. The utility of these particular talents doesn’t become clear until years later, when Joe embarks on a vengeful mission to save the love of her life from the gallows. You see, it seems that spending all that time on the ranch gave Joe the opportunity to solidify a competitive love triangle with her two young male neighbors. Tom (David Thomas Jenkins) is the boastful son of the town’s richest rancher, lording his status over Jakob (Jason Grasl ), his adopted Apache brother.

Although both are in love with Joe, Tom loses her to Jakob after she rejects his obsessive possessiveness, as well as his marriage offer. Even after he becomes the town’s sheriff he can’t seem to win her back, so he tries the next best thing: eliminating Jakob by jailing him on trumped-up murder charges. Now to get him back, Joe’s going to need all her wits, as well as those gunfighting skills, to outmaneuver Tom and his menacing henchmen.

Related Stories

Hollywood braces for big decline at summer box office.

Featuring a much lower body count than most Westerns, Knudsen’s feature relies primarily on relationship dynamics to raise the stakes. With such a small cast, however, it’s a stretch to build much tension, particularly when the three principal characters appear together in a limited number of scenes. An awkward narrative framing device and frequent shifts between time periods further disrupt plot cohesion as Knudsen’s script attempts to backfill the history of rivalry among the trio.

As the center of attention. Eiland’s Joe makes for an unpredictable firecracker, but her love for Jakob rarely seems as strong as her drive for revenge against Tom. Jenkins does his best to make Tom seem threatening, but comes across as more mean than menacing, while Grasl plays Jakob as non-confrontational to a fault.  

Knudsen and his team excel however in re-creating period details, with cinematographer Julia Swain washing the film’s dusty vistas in glowing golden light that emphasizes Lauren Ivy’s immersive production design and Brianna Quick’s realistic costumes.

Production company: Scorpion Stomper Productions

Cast: Abigail Eiland , David Thomas Jenkins, Jason Grasl , Rick Cramer, Gregory Zaragoza , Jessy Knudsen, Lola Kelly

Director-writer: Matt Knudsen

Producers: Matt Knudsen, Brooks Yang

Director of photography: Julia Swain

Production designer: Lauren Ivy

Costume designer: Brianna Quick

Editor: John Lange

Venue: Dances With Films

THR Newsletters

Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day

More from The Hollywood Reporter

Kate winslet cracks glass ceiling among war photographers in latest ‘lee’ trailer, sean baker and mikey madison’s palme d’or romance ‘anora’ debuts first trailer, original ‘willy wonka’ actors join musical parody, tim robbins slams conspiracy theories linking his movie to trump shooting, box office: ‘despicable me 4’ easily wins with $44.7m as ‘longlegs’ stuns with record $22.6m launch, charlize theron calls ‘furiosa’ “a beautiful film,” says she hasn’t discussed movie with anya taylor-joy but “we’ve really been trying to connect”.

Once Upon a Time in a Western

Cassidy red (2017).

She sees marriage to rancher Tom Hayes (David Thomas Jenkins) as a chance to start life anew.

But she can’t shake her yearnings for his adopted brother Jakob (Jason Grasl).

When Hayes returns home early from a trip to settle his deceased father’s affairs, he finds the two together.

He could have killed them. He decides to make them suffer, the way they’ve made him suffer.

So Hayes has himself elected sheriff so he’s the law in these here parts. When Joe slips out of town, he sees his chance to get even with Jakob.

In the process, he knows he’ll be able to lure Joe back to town.

After all, there’s no more effective way to hurt someone than to hurt someone they love.

The ploy works. Josephine, hair dyed blood red, is back in town. And she’s looking for revenge.

Abby Eiland as Joe Cassidy in Cassidy Red (2017)

David Thomas Jenkins as Tom Hayes in Cassidy Red (2017)

I doubt this film is going to crack anyone’s Top 100 Westerns list. But in the barren landscape of 21st Century Westerns, it’s certainly worth viewing for fans of the genre.

The key twist is having a gun-toting female as a heroine. But the film also features a double-flashback format that helps it stand out. And if the “training” interlude during which Joe’s dad teaches her the art of handling a six-gun is way too overdone in Westerns, at least it’s handled well here.

Other pluses include a strong performance by Abby Eiland as Joe Cassidy and an even stronger one by Rick Cramer as her father.

There’s also a fabulous opening title sequence by Daniel Olivas that hearkens back to the days of Spaghetti Westerns and, if anything, sets the expectations for what’s to follow a bit too high.

The plot? It’s not particularly strong. One wonders how much that had to do with budget constraints.

But even then, having Tom’s Indian-hating father adopt an Apache as a second son and having absolutely no one react when Cassidy’s father bursts into jail and guns down a deputy seems a bit far fetched.

Jason Grasl as Jakob Yazzie in Cassidy Red (2017)

Rick Cramer as Cort Cassidy in Cassidy Red (2017)

Directed by: Matt Knudsen

Cast: Abby Eiland … Joe Cassidy David Thomas Jenkins … Tom Hayes Jason Grasl … Jakob Yazzie Jessy Knudsen … Quinn Gregory Zaragoza … Cricket Rick Cramer … Cort Cassidy Lola Kelly … Rowena Alyssa Elle Steinacker … Young Joe Hudson Borthwick … Young Tom Lindsey-Anne Campbell … Young Rowena Lyle Kanouse … Hank Hayes Bryan Harnden … Deputy Sootie Peter Fuller … Kearny Mercedes LeAnza … Harley O’Houlihan Annie Pace … Annie

Runtime: 91 min.

Lola Kelly as Rowena in Cassidy Red (2017)

Rick Cramer as Cort Cassidy with Abby Eiland as daughter Josephine Cassidy in Cassidy Red (2017)

Memorable lines:

Cricket, providing words of advice for Quinn: “Everything looks lovelier when the sun comes up. Or at least less ugly.”

Cassidy, when Rowena hands her a derringer: “It’s a whore’s gun.” Rowena, as Cassidy changes into her mother’s clothes: “Well, that sure as hell ain’t no missionary’s costume.”

Cassidy to her dad Cort: “You and I have both had something taken from us. You can’t hunt down consumption, but I can put a bullet in the heart of that seed sucker that killed Jakob and made a slave out of Harley.”

Cort, about avenging Jakob: “Stomping into a suicide mission to avenge some Apache bastard who gives you the vapors ain’t the way I planned on ending my life.”

Cort, during Cassidy’s shooting lesson: “What the hell are you closing one eye for? Close one eye, you’re just going to see half as much. Plus you’ll end up spraying wide cause you ain’t got no depth perception.”

Tom Hayes: “You may think this woman loves you, Jakob. And you may be right. But I can goddamn well guarantee you she ain’t got the necessary faculties to love your ass half as much as she hates mine. She truly is her father’s daughter.”

Alyssa Elle Steinacker as young Joe in Cassidy Red (2017)

Hudson Borthwick as Young Tom in Cassidy Red (2017)

Jessy Knudsen as Quinn in Cassidy Red (2017)

Gregory Zaragoza as Cricket in Cassidy Red (2017)

Related Posts

Union Bound (2016)

The Virginian (2000)

Hostiles (2017)

Leave a reply cancel reply.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Comment moderation is enabled. Your comment may take some time to appear.

Cassidy Red Review

Cassidy Red is a 2018 western/romance about a prostitute who returns to her hometown, seeking vengeance against the corrupt lawman.

The western has predominantly been a man’s game. From wily sheriffs and marshals cleaning up the town to ranchers just trying to make living against rascally bandits looking to take over their land. Woman have mostly been on the peripheral, either as unlucky prostitutes at the local saloon or maidens in distress. Fortunately, a few movies have slowly begun to change that, with  Sharon Stone ‘s 1995 shoot ’em up  The Quick and the Dead   and more recently  Natalie Portman ‘s  Jane Got a Gun to name a few. Now comes  Matt Knudsen ‘s Cassidy Red , a film that at least keeps the western alive and plays close to the tropes while remaining mostly entertaining.

In a smoky, desperately empty, brothel, a weathered looking piano player named Cricket ( Gregory Zaragoza ) tickles the ivories with a sallow tune while a young prostitute with a shiner saunters up and takes a seat, looking for a story and a break from the hard life. She gets one, the tale of  Cassidy Red, a ballad of love and hate. He takes us back to 1874 where Josephine Cassidy ( Abby Eiland ) is the daughter of a saloon girl and a hired gun named Cort ( Rick Cramer ). Joe grew up with a gun in her hand, becoming a skilled shooter all her own and one day saves a Native American boy named Yazzie from bully Tom Hayes. Years later, however, she agrees to marry the troublesome Tom ( David Thomas Jenkins ) with the promise of a new life, but when Yazzie, now Jakob, ( Jason Grasl ) enters her life again, some old flames rekindle and this spells trouble all around. Now she’s out for revenge.

Right away, Cassidy Red isn’t a timid movie. Cassidy take a beating just as well as any of her counterpart men have, doing it in a frilly dress and fiery red hair. Eiland is a strong presence, taking the reigns of sorts with plenty of female sensuality and loads of empowerment. The film splits itself into three main parts with the storyteller one, Red’s younger years another, and her as a woman, third, not entirely told in sequence. The best are the middle ones when Cort and young Josephine ( Alyssa Elle Steinacker ) is under the tutelage of her father. Cramer is well cast and adds the most weight to the story. It’s good to get a little backstory on Cassidy and Knudsen, who also wrote the screenplay, manages these three threads mostly well.

Performances all around are sort of uneven and there’s not a lot of momentum, with a laid back organ-heavy score that keeps the whole thing feeling a little more like a well-made television movie of the week than a feature film. However, this is a solid western tale, if not conventionally driven. Cassidy is a compelling character and clearly inline with current social justice thinking, as well it should be, and for fans of westerns, plenty fun. While it may lack the numerous action landmarks of its predecessors, Cassidy Red is nonetheless worth a look.

Trunk Review

I.S.S. Review

Cult Killer Review

The Iron Claw Review

American Fiction Review

The Holdovers Review

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Accept Read More

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

• Upcoming Movies and TV shows
• Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
• Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

• What's the Tomatometer®?
• Login/signup

Movies in theaters

• Opening this week
• Top box office
• Coming soon to theaters
• Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

• Fandango at Home
• Prime Video
• Most popular streaming movies
• What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

• 73% MaXXXine Link to MaXXXine
• 90% Kill Link to Kill
• 85% Remembering Gene Wilder Link to Remembering Gene Wilder

New TV Tonight

• 88% Sunny: Season 1
• 67% Exploding Kittens: Season 1
• 50% Sausage Party: Foodtopia: Season 1
• -- Vikings: Valhalla: Season 3
• -- Mastermind: To Think Like a Killer: Season 1
• -- The Serpent Queen: Season 2
• -- Me: Season 1
• -- The Bachelorette: Season 21
• -- Melissa Etheridge: I'm Not Broken: Season 1
• -- All American: Homecoming: Season 3

Most Popular TV on RT

• 80% Star Wars: The Acolyte: Season 1
• 100% Supacell: Season 1
• 93% The Boys: Season 4
• 88% The Bear: Season 3
• 76% Presumed Innocent: Season 1
• 90% House of the Dragon: Season 2
• 93% My Lady Jane: Season 1
• Best TV Shows
• Most Popular TV
• TV & Streaming News

Certified fresh pick

• 95% We Are Lady Parts: Season 2 Link to We Are Lady Parts: Season 2
• All-Time Lists
• Binge Guide
• Comics on TV
• Five Favorite Films
• Video Interviews
• Weekend Box Office
• Weekly Ketchup
• What to Watch

All Arnold Schwarzenegger Movies Ranked

All Neon Movies, Ranked by Tomatometer

What to Watch: In Theaters and On Streaming

Awards Tour

Renewed and Cancelled TV Shows 2024

The Most Anticipated Movies of 2025

• Trending on RT
• Fly Me To The Moon
• Mission Impossible 8
• A24 Horror Movies

Cassidy Red Reviews

Features a female protagonist and plenty of talented women behind the scenes, but comes up short delivering on the expected character conflicts and action sequences.

Full Review | Jun 19, 2017

Letterboxd — Your life in film

Forgotten username or password ?

• Start a new list…
• Add all films to a list…
• Add all films to watchlist

Add to your films…

Press Tab to complete, Enter to create

A moderator has locked this field.

Add to lists

Where to watch

Cassidy red.

Directed by Matt Knudsen

Hell hath no fury...

Cassidy Red is a western romance set against the backdrop of the 19th century American southwest. The film follows the headstrong daughter of a prostitute who returns to her hometown, seeking vengeance against the corrupt lawman she believes murdered her lover.

Abby Eiland David Thomas Jenkins Jason Grasl Jessy Knudsen Gregory Zaragoza Rick Cramer Lola Kelly Alyssa Elle Steinacker Hudson Borthwick Lindsey-Anne Campbell Lyle Kanouse

Director Director

Matt Knudsen

Writer Writer

Cassidy Red Scorpion Stomper Productions

Releases by Date

08 oct 2017, 28 mar 2019, releases by country, south korea.

91 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by PUNQ ★ 5

I watch a lot of bad movies, but I lost interest in Cassidy Red (2017) like few other I've seen. Which tells you how poorly this potentially cool redhead western story was told.

Review by Warren Gilbert ★★★

2017 Films Ranked

A piano man tells a prostitute the story of Cassidy Red (Abby Eiland), a woman who returns home to seek vengeance on a corrupt lawman (David Thomas Jenkins) who she believes has killed her man (Jason Grasl) set in the American southwest in the late 19th century. The film switches between the man telling the story and flashbacks of the title character.

Cassidy Red opens with some nice animated opening credits that are probably computer generated, but have a nice pencil drawn look to them. Many elements are decently done from the look of the film, locations, and music, but nothing really stands out. The flashbacks from Cassidy's childhood are highlights, while the adult versions are a…

Review by Kim_Cardassian ★½

Cassidy Red was produced as a thesis film project for UCLA's MFA Directing program. That in itself is pretty damn impressive, and goes a long way to explaining why this feels so much like a high-budget YouTube film.

I came into the film on the basis of what sounded like a really good idea; essentially a feminist take on Unforgiven. Josephine "Joe" Cassidy (who is blonde in flashbacks and redheaded in the present) is seen falling in love with an Apache boy, much to the displeasure of her ex-husband. The film unfolds through three separate plot threads; Joe Cassidy's past, Joe Cassidy's revenge as "Cassidy Red", and the story of Cassidy Red being told to a prostitute by someone who…

Review by Mykeritos

When I started to watch this western, I had one thought: please not another Annie Oakley/Calamity Jane/Belle Starr kind of story! And Cassidy Red is not that kind of story!

It has very simple story. And I enjoyed every single minute of it! The main character is one simple young woman. She is stubborn (very!) but she is not a gunhero. And here we can follow her story.

In total: I have found another hidden pearl for me!

Select your preferred backdrop

Select your preferred poster.

Cassidy Red

★★½ “better red than dead. albeit, only just.”.

The structure here is quite convoluted – rather needlessly, I’d say. Not only does it unfold in several different eras, the entire thing is enclosed in wraparound sections, where the story of Cassidy Red is being told, for inspirational purposes, by a piano-player in a brothel to one of the working girls. It’s definitely a case where less feels like it would have been more, with a straightforward chronological timeline working to the film’s benefit, instead of characters dropping in and out. Perhaps the director felt that might have been too simple, for once you peel away the trapping, this is indeed a very straightforward tale of revenge. Is that necessarily a bad thing, though?

This was submitted for Knudsen’s thesis at UCLA’s School of Theater, Film, and Television, which perhaps explains some of the issues here: on occasion, it certainly does feels as if it was an academic requirement with an earnest Message (capital M used deliberately), rather than wanting to tell its story. The best section is likely the one where Joe is being taught the mechanics of gun-fighting by her father, which is very well written, performed and edited. The result is a sequence that sheds genuine light into the mindset of someone who, for survival, has to be permanently ready to shoot to kill. Given the limited budget here, credit is due for production values which are generally good. It was filmed largely on location at Old Tucson Studios, and that adds authenticity to the 19th-century Arizona setting, which some films wouldn’t have bothered with. 

Other parts, unfortunately, fall short of that, and some are flat-out unconvincing – the scene where Jakob is taken on board as a foster son, for example, seems entirely inexplicable, and they just shouldn’t have bothered, since it’s not something the audience needs to see. It’s a shame, since the central performance is good: however, the two male leads both struggle to be more than forgettable, and that leaves the end result feeling unbalanced on the dramatic level. This sporadic quality is perhaps the biggest problem: there seems a general unevenness of tone and approach, resulting in a film which takes two steps forward, then one back.

Dir : Matt Knudsen Star : Abigail Eiland, David Thomas Jenkins, Jason Grasl, Rick Cramer

Related Posts:

• Seventh Son
• Zulm Ka Badla
• Fool Me Once
• The Devil to Pay

Comments are closed.

Join or Sign In

Sign in to customize your TV listings

By joining TV Guide, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy .

• TV Listings
• Cast & Crew

Cassidy Red Reviews

• 1 hr 32 mins
• Drama, Action & Adventure
• Watchlist Where to Watch

In the 19th-century American southwest, Josephine Cassidy, the daughter of a prostitute, returns to her hometown to seek revenge for her slaughtered lover. The murderer in question is the corrupt sheriff of the town, who is also Cassidy's vengeful former fiancé.

Cassidy Red (2017) Stream and Watch Online

Watch 'cassidy red' online.

Looking to watch ' Cassidy Red ' on your TV or mobile device at home? Discovering a streaming service to buy, rent, download, or view the Matt Knudsen-directed movie via subscription can be confusing, so we here at Moviefone want to take the pressure off. Read on for a listing of streaming and cable services - including rental, purchase, and subscription options - along with the availability of 'Cassidy Red' on each platform when they are available. Now, before we get into the fundamentals of how you can watch 'Cassidy Red' right now, here are some details about the Cassidy Red Scorpion Stomper Productions western flick. Released October 8th, 2017, 'Cassidy Red' stars Abby Eiland , David Thomas Jenkins , Jason Grasl , Jessy Knudsen The movie has a runtime of about 1 hr 31 min, and received a user score of 53 (out of 100) on TMDb, which assembled reviews from 3 respected users. What, so now you want to know what the movie's about? Here's the plot: "Cassidy Red is a western romance set against the backdrop of the 19th century American southwest The film follows the headstrong daughter of a prostitute who returns to her hometown seeking vengeance against the corrupt lawman she believes murdered her lover" 'Cassidy Red' is currently available to rent, purchase, or stream via subscription on Amazon Video, Vudu, Amazon Prime Video , Amazon Prime Video with Ads, The Roku Channel, VUDU Free, Apple iTunes, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Tubi TV, Pluto TV, and IMDB TV Amazon Channel .

'Cassidy Red' Release Dates

Popular western movies.

Featured News

Movie Reviews

Follow Moviefone

Latest trailers.

• Coming Soon Theaters • Online
• Advanced Search
• Collections Top 500
• Film Awards
• Recommendations Movies • TV Shows
• Search by Name
• Popular Top 500
• My TV Shows
• My Calendar
• Coming Soon Premieres

Movie's ratings

• IMDb 4.6 216
• Cast & Crew
• Screenshots
• Technical Data

Cassidy Red

Videos Posters Filming Screenshots

Related Movies There are no related titles yet, but you can add them:

Add a short review

280 characters

Sign up and you will see here friends impressions of the movie.

Friends comments and ratings, trending movies.

The best website for movie search and thoughts sharing with friends

• Browser extension

• Cassidy Red

Cassidy Red - User Reviews

Thank you for rating this movie read your review below. ratings will be added after 24 hours..

Please rate movie 1 to 5 stars

Terms of use.

Serial killer thriller ‘Boneyard’ a cut above the average B-movie

Mel gibson’s lastest low-profile project is inspired by the real-life discovery of women and girls’ remains in albuquerque..

Mel Gibson plays a federal agent investigating the discovering of slain women’s remains in “Boneyard.”

The sad reality of our world and our nation is that we have had so many notorious serial killings and mass murders in the 20th and 21st centuries that unless you’re a resident of the Albuquerque, New Mexico, region, you might not have even heard of the West Mesa murders. In 2009, a woman walking her dog found a bone in an undeveloped area in Albuquerque that is part of the elevated landmass known as the West Mesa and alerted authorities, who discovered the remains of 11 women and girls and a fetus. The girls and women, all of whom disappeared between 2001 and 2005, were between the ages of 15 and 32.

Those unsolved murders serve as the inspiration for director and co-writer Asif Akbar’s gritty and stylish if occasionally meandering and overstuffed “Boneyard.” While the film is faithful to the basic factual outlines of the case, it is a work of fiction with characters who are not based on any true-life investigators or suspects. This is a B-movie through and through, but thanks in large part to a deep cast of familiar faces and reliable character actors, it’s a solid crime thriller that respects the true-life blueprint of the story.

Mel Gibson, who has reached that point in his career where he’s churning out three or four relatively low-profile films a year and is usually playing a bearded, cynical, world-weary guy living in a world of violence, checks off all those boxes here as the federal profiler Agent Petrovick, who insists everyone calls him Pete.

As is typically the case in these types of crime movies, the local investigators, including Detectives Ortega (Brian Van Holt) and Young (Nora Zehetner) resent the feds. What’s the deal with this cocky old-timer who wears Hawaiian shirts and sucks the air out of the room? Of course, they eventually come to respect Pete’s methodology. The guy knows what he’s doing.

• ‘Dangerous’: What’s that horrible Mel? Just Gibson, stinking up a movie

Director Akbar and cinematographer Joshua Reis sometimes use a hand-held, indie style and occasionally switch to sepia tones and black-and-white as the story expands this way and that, sometimes to the detriment of the main plot. Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson’s Chief Carter is dealing with corruption in the department, notably from a rogue former undercover cop named Tate (Michael Sirow) who might be connected to the killings. Gabrielle Haugh does fine work as Selena, a sex worker who might have some evidence to help break the case. In a handful of scenes that play like a lesser version of “The Silence of the Lambs,” a creepy loner played by Weston Cage (son of Nicolas Cage) emerges as a prime suspect.

As he tries to solve the murders, the police chief (Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson) also is dealing with corruption in his department.

As “Boneyard” embraces crime thriller tropes, e.g., The Big Board of Clues, with photos and index cards and newspaper headlines connected by a web of red string, Gibson’s Pete narrates the story, at one point noting that he, Detective Ortega and Chief Carter all have lost loved ones to violent crime: “What a crew we are. The walking wounded. Each of us carrying the ghosts of the ones we were supposed to protect. They were dead, and we were alive, and we couldn’t forgive ourselves for that.” It’s the stuff of clichés, but also the stuff we kind of expect in movies like this, and it works more often than not.

• Action/Adventure
• Children's/Family
• Documentary/Reality
• Amazon Prime Video

More From Decider

Were Rats Scurrying Across The Screen In 'The Bachelorette' Season 21...

Bette Midler Tearfully Shuts Down Hoda Kotb's Questioning During Emotional...

Netflix Basic Plan Discontinued: Is Netflix Getting Rid Of Its Cheapest...

Michael Strahan Returns To 'Good Morning America' After Two Weeks Off The...

'The Bear' Season 3 Review: Carmy Secures His Role as The Chairman of The...

R.I.P. Martin Mull: 'Clue' & 'Roseanne' Star Dead at 80

Every Kevin Costner Movie Is A Western (Even When They're Not)

Nicole Kidman Tore Zac Efron’s Shirt Off in One Take, Says ‘A Family...

Share this:.

• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
• Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
• Click to copy URL

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Red Right Hand’ on Hulu, Where Orlando Bloom Battles Backwoods Drug Queenpin Andie MacDowell

Where to Stream:

• Red Right Hand
• Andie MacDowell

Where To Watch ‘Groundhog Day’ Online In 2024

Drew barrymore sobs over surprise reunion with ‘bad girls’ co-star dermot mulroney on ‘the drew barrymore show’: “you were so good to me”, ‘the drew barrymore show’: andie macdowell recalls a 10-year-old drew “partying” at the ‘st. elmo’s fire’ premiere, asks her “what were you doing there”, will there be a season 2 of ‘the way home’ what we know.

In Red Right Hand , now streaming on Hulu , Orlando Bloom plays a guy who used to be bad but overcame his past to focus on the good: family, faith, and just doing what he can to get by. Trouble is, Andie MacDowell lives in this county, too, and her character’s thriving trade in “hillbilly heroin” makes her all-powerful in this part of Appalachia. There’s obvious trouble brewing from the opening moments of directors Eshom Nelms and Ian Nelms’ film, and when things invariably get messy in Red Right Hand , all that’s left is for whoever’s still standing to report back to God. Not for penance, but for justification. 

RED RIGHT HAND : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

The Gist: In his cabin on a rambling piece of family farmland, Cash (Bloom) smokes dirt weed joints while doing shirtless pull-ups. “For God, for family, for survival.” That’s the mantra he upholds with his alcoholic brother-in-law Finney and adolescent niece Savannah (Chapel Oaks) as they tend to their livestock and keep their little farm running. But money’s tight in these parts, out in the misty green hills of Kentucky, and Cash can only grit his teeth when Finney admits he gave the note on their property to Big Cat (MacDowell), the sinister hill country drug lord who controls all the opportunity around here. Cash and Big Cat go back. Years before, when he was a junkie alongside his friend Wilder (Dillahunt), who is similarly reformed and now serves as the town preacher, Cash worked for Big Cat as her go-to enforcer. So he heads up the rise to her sumptuous mansion. “Wanna tell me why you’re putting the screws on my family?”

Big Cat only got Finney and the farm on her hook so she could get to Cash. Three jobs, she says. Three jobs and the debt is paid. He has plenty of reason not to believe her, but no real choice if he wants to save the farm and protect Finney and Savannah from her gruesome twosome goons, known as the Buck (Kenneth Miller) and the Doe (Nicholas Logan). Cash agrees to Big Cat’s terms, naturally the jobs involve eliminating her drug biz rivals, and of course Cash has to get his hands dirty doing more of the stuff he thought he left behind. And don’t think the law’s gonna be any help. While Deputy Parks (Mo McRae) is an ally, the sheriff is all the way inside Big Cat’s pocket. It’s no shock when Big Cat goes back on her word, and even less of one when Cash has gotta take matters into his own scarred hands. 

Red Right Hand has Orlando Bloom doing a wavering southern accent, Andie MacDowell in full sicko mode – Big Cat is admittedly a pretty great name for a murderous queenpin – and Garret Dillahunt popping up every now and then to lend some gravity to the situation. Beyond that, you’re on your own.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of? Back in 2018, Garret Dillahunt played the heavy in Braven , a film with a scale similar to Red Right Hand that was elevated by his performance alongside better-than-they-needed-to-be turns from Jason Momoa and Zahn McClarnon. And Red Right Hand helmers Eshom Nelms and Ian Nelms also directed and wrote the intriguing, noirish thriller Small Town Crime .

Performance Worth Watching: Andie MacDowell conjures a good bit of menace as Appalachian drug boss Big Cat, really leaning into pulpy lines like “I don’t think I’ve ever seen knees shatter like that” while rocking a long twisty braid, bolo tie, and a snakeskin blouse, her assault rifle always close at hand. 

Memorable Dialogue: “I’ll handle it,” Cash says after Big Cat’s main pair of thugs lay into his bro-in-law Finney with meaty paws and the butts of their pistols. “I know how these animals feed…”

Sex and Skin: Nothing but a random male ass cheek.  

Our Take: Red Right Hand is not named for the epic 1994 Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds song that has since become the theme to Peaky Blinders . No, it travels back to the source material of that title phrase, John Milton’s 17th-century poem Paradise Lost , which in this film is evoked in sermons delivered by Garret Dillahunt’s preacher character Wilder. Divine vengeance. The “red right hand” of God. Or, in Orlando Bloom’s case, his character’s perceived spiritual license to bring down furious anger on Andie MacDowell’s Kentucky hill country drug lord and her gang of vicious goons. Which is a whole mouthful to try and justify a script that just can’t chew it all. MacDowell, Bloom, Dillahunt, and newcomer Chapel Oaks give the material some heft whenever they can. But it’s not really enough to justify the empty motivations of these characters, and the lengthy stretches of generic B-movie pacing. By the time we arrive at a shootout finale that was obvious from Red Right Hand ’s opening moments, there’s not a whole lot of meat left on the bone.

You can hang with it in moments, though. There’s some fun in seeing MacDowell play against type, Bloom and Dillahunt manage a solid two-man game when it finally comes down to vengeance time, and in a movie that doesn’t scrimp on its savagery, there are some pretty grisly henchman kills, like when Bloom’s Cash pulls a “Here, hold this” with a bear trap ready to be sprung.

Our Call: Red Right Hand is a tentative STREAM IT. You’ve seen versions of this many times before, and done a sight better than this. But Orlando Bloom and Garret Dillahunt have their moments, and Andie MacDowell basically steals the film as the outrageously evil Big Cat.  

Johnny Loftus ( @glennganges ) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.

• Stream It Or Skip It

Bette Midler Tearfully Shuts Down Hoda Kotb's Questioning During Emotional 'Today' Interview: "Please Don't Make Me Cry"

When Will 'Power Book II: Ghost' Season 4, Episode 6 Premiere on Starz?

'Live': Mark Consuelos Asks Tyler Perry Why He And Kelly Ripa "Have Never Been" In One Of His Movies After Learning Two 'All My Children' Alum Are In His Latest Film

Michael Strahan Returns To 'Good Morning America' After Two Weeks Off The Air — Where He Was And Why He Was Away

I Found The Chicago Tribune's Restaurant Review of "The Bear," The Windy City's Hottest New Eatery

'Live': Kelly Ripa Calls Out Mark Consuelos For Looking Right At Her While Discussing "Aging Skin"

'Red, White & Royal Blue' Review: A Rom-Com Tailored for Book Fans

Your changes have been saved

Email Is sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

'Horizon: An American Saga' Review: Kevin Costner’s Western Has a Snake in Its Boot

'touch' review: if you fell in love with 'past lives,' this one’s for you, 'the outlaws' review: a western boiled down to the essentials.

This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn't exist. Adapting any bestselling book can be a tall task, but duplicating the success of a romance novel from page to screen can sometimes be akin to capturing lightning in a bottle — twice. Given that the genre is rooted so profoundly in introspection, the trick lies in figuring out how to take the thoughts we're only privy to when we're in the characters' heads and bring them to life in external performance. Since its initial publication in 2019, Casey McQuiston 's debut novel Red, White & Royal Blue has captured millions of readers' hearts in its rendering of the love story between the son of a U.S. president and a prince fourth in line to the British throne. Two parties who beat the overwhelming odds to find true love with each other is a universal concept in the romance genre. Still, Hollywood has often struggled to reproduce the same magic in its own adaptations — in part because of the difficulty of rendering something so rooted in internal emotion in a bolder, more outward medium.

All this is to say that director Matthew López , who co-writes the script based on McQuiston's novel alongside Ted Malawer , does succeed at breathing new life into this enemies-to-lovers romance tale for both newcomers and diehard book fans alike. The biggest issues for Prime Video's big-screen adaptation, however, are more definitively found in uneven performances that even the best creative direction and fascinating directorial choices can't completely save.

RELATED: You Can Now Follow 'Red, White & Royal Blue's Alex and Henry on Instagram

'Red, White & Royal Blue' Is a Mixed Bag of Performances

The premise is fairly straightforward: Alex Claremont-Diaz ( Taylor Zakhar Perez ), the First Son of the United States, and Prince Henry ( Nicholas Galitzine ), the resident "spare" in the British royal family, have never really gotten along. Eventually, thanks to an utter cake-tastrophe that is likened to an international incident, splashed across the pages of every major newspaper and tabloid, the two are forced to shake hands and make up for the purposes of good PR. This adjusted proximity conceit, naturally, means that Alex and Henry are forced into one another's orbit for the necessary photo ops and shared interviews, during which they lie through their teeth about having always been close personal friends. Behind the scenes, however, they're given the chance to see different sides of each other that they've never been privy to before — and come to the mutual realization that their first-ever meeting was really just a case of two people starting off on the wrong foot. Their snarking and competitive tendencies give way to attraction, and before they know it, they've entered into a secret romance, complete with sneaking away for quickies in public places and texting each other all day and into the night.

Without going further into spoiler territory (though the fans who have read the book may not be entirely surprised by the film's path), the biggest success of Red, White & Royal Blue is that it still remains a romance at its core, but the movie's runtime, unfortunately, cuts into more opportunities to spend scenes with some of the delightful ensemble cast. Sarah Shahi is a powerhouse as U.S. Deputy Chief of Staff and longtime advisor Zahra Bankston, who becomes one of the first people to discover Alex and Henry's secret relationship to amusing results, and Rachel Hilson brings an effervescence to the role of Nora Holleran, one of Alex's closest friends, as he opens up to her about his sexuality. Apart from them, however, the rest of the cast is only given brief opportunities to make their own impression; Henry's older brother Philip ( Thomas Flynn ) comes across as more of a caricature than a character, the prince's BFF Percy ( Malcolm Atobrah ) is woefully underused, and Secret Service agent Amy ( Aneesh Sheth ) is so hilariously dry in every scene that you'll be counting the minutes until she reemerges in the story.

'Red, White & Royal Blue' Captures the Exhilaration and Devastation of a Queer Love Story — to a Point

When it comes to Red, White & Royal Blue 's leading duo, however, it feels like only one half is up to the task of exploring this romance in all of its intricacies, or giving us as close a look into their character's soul as we can get without literally having a line to their thoughts. This is where Galitzine utterly excels in the role — as Prince Henry, someone who has been closeted in his sexuality for his entire life and continues to be so out of what he considers an obligation to his royal duty, the conflict that plays out across his features is heartwrenchingly clear. One scene in particular, during which Alex is painfully oblivious to the inner turmoil Henry is experiencing while he rambles on about all the things they'll do together after his mother's bid for reelection, is a testament to Galitzine's piercing emotional range.

Perez, on the other hand, does his best to sell his half of the relationship, but in the film's most impassioned scenes, it still feels as though there's a piece of him that's held back from truly committing to the nuance and full yearning of the character. Some of this is likely a consequence of the stark differences between Alex and Henry's coming-out journeys. As the prince himself notes at one point, Alex has an incredibly supportive family between his POTUS mother ( Uma Thurman , who sinks her teeth into every syllable of Ellen Claremont's Texan drawl) and his senator father (a perfectly wielded Clifton Collins Jr. ), while Henry has been instructed to bury his deeper longings for the sake of crown and country. Just the same, it often seems as though Red, White & Royal Blue 's two leads are operating on disparate emotional wavelengths.

'Red, White & Royal Blue' Takes Some Bold Creative Swings That Occasionally Pay Off

All that said, it's thrilling to watch López make some interesting creative choices in his approach to this romance, several of which put a new spin on what we've seen before on-screen. Lovers of the original book know that for a while, Alex and Henry are separated by distance and duty, which means a heavy reliance on texting and phone calls (yes, even those) in this day and age. Rather than frame these late-night talks with the actors in two separate rooms, López, alongside cinematographer Stephen Goldblatt , flips the idea on its head by positioning Perez and Galitzine in the same place — and sometimes even in the same bed — so we're given the visual of the two of them keeping each other company in a more intimate space in spite of the fact that they're hundreds of miles away from each other in reality.

There's also a particularly striking scene that occurs during Alex's New Year's Eve bash — one of those instances where the rest of the partygoers drop away for only a few seconds, but López chooses to frame it as a point in time that stretches on for what feels like an eternity. It's one of the best portions of the film that comes close to replicating the feeling of reading a romance novel, where Alex and Henry get to look into each other's eyes unblinkingly and truly see each other for the very first time. Other scenes, however, including a very special one involving Alex's old house, are inexplicably filmed at more of a distance where it's difficult to even fully see faces, creating a remove between the characters and the audience in what should be a joyful and incandescent moment.

Overall, in spite of its stumbles, Red, White & Royal Blue is a charming and diverting rom-com that introduces a welcome new viewpoint to the long-running genre — and Alex and Henry's journey to love is sure to please both longtime fans of McQuiston's novel as well as newer arrivals who are looking for a mostly solid entry point into romance itself.

The Big Picture

• Adapting romance novels to the screen can be challenging due to the difficulty of capturing internal emotions in an external medium.
• The big-screen adaptation of Red, White & Royal Blue successfully breathes new life into the enemies-to-lovers romance but is hindered by uneven performances.
• The film stays true to the core of the romance genre but is limited by its runtime and missed opportunities to explore the ensemble cast.

Red, White & Royal Blue premieres August 11 on Prime Video.

• Movie Reviews
• Red, White & Royal Blue (2023)

Cassidy Red (2017)

• Parents Guide

Certification

• Profanity (1)

Sex & Nudity

• Mild 1 of 1 found this mild Severity? None 0 Mild 1 Moderate 0 Severe 0 We were unable to submit your evaluation. Please try again later.

Violence & Gore

• Mild 1 of 3 found this mild Severity? None 1 Mild 1 Moderate 1 Severe 0 We were unable to submit your evaluation. Please try again later.
• God's name is combined with the D word early on. Edit

Alcohol, Drugs & Smoking

Frightening & intense scenes.

• Moderate 1 of 1 found this moderate Severity? None 0 Mild 0 Moderate 1 Severe 0 We were unable to submit your evaluation. Please try again later.

Taglines | Plot Summary | Synopsis | Plot Keywords

• Plot Summary
• Plot Keywords
• Full Cast and Crew
• Release Dates
• Official Sites
• Company Credits
• Filming & Production
• Technical Specs

Did You Know?

• Crazy Credits
• Alternate Versions
• Connections
• Soundtracks

Photo & Video

• Photo Gallery
• Trailers and Videos
• User Reviews
• User Ratings
• External Reviews
• Metacritic Reviews

Related Items

• External Sites

Related lists from IMDb users

Recently Viewed