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"The Kid," directed by Vincent D’Onofrio, is, in some ways, a modern spin on an old story, one that has been explored in Hollywood many times before. Based on the real-life tale of the showdown between the famous young outlaw, Billy the Kid, and his arch nemesis, Sheriff Pat Garrett, D’Onofrio’s film transforms many of the classical western tropes into a meditation on the lingering after-effects of domestic violence. The story centers on the coming-of-age journey of Rio, a 14-year-old who shoots his abusive father in an unsuccessful attempt to save his mother from being beaten to death. When Rio and his sister Sara attempt to run, they are accosted by their cruel Uncle Grant, played by Chris Pratt , who threatens to take them both. After playing a series of chipper characters, Pratt makes a believable villain.

Both Rio and Sara are traumatized from the violence they’ve experienced, and Rio is afraid to run and unsure of who to trust. When he first encounters Billy the Kid, Rio is both frightened and transfixed by Billy’s swagger, a fact that Billy cleverly tries to manipulate to his own ends. Later, when he meets Sheriff Garrett, we see how Rio is ultimately given a choice to either embrace the life of a bandit or pursue a life of virtue and justice. Ethan Hawke ’s portrayal of Garrett is earnest and complex, easily the best aspect of the film, and brings to life the story of a man with violent impulses who ultimately chooses to use his instincts to protect, rather than harm. 

Rio’s journey towards manhood is explicitly tied to his exposure to and enacting of violence, and, throughout the film, we see how male characters grapple with doing the right thing. In contrast, the female characters throughout "The Kid" aren’t given the same agency. In fact, the same violence that propels moral choice for male protagonists leads female characters to lose themselves. Rio’s mother is beaten to a bloody pulp very early in the film and while we hear her soft body being throttled to death, her character remains a plot device for Rio’s journey, rather than a flesh-and-blood person loved by her children. Likewise, Billy the Kid’s pregnant girlfriend’s main roles are crying when Billy is taken away and begging for him to stay with her. The most developed female character is Rio’s sister, Sara, who is constantly trying to navigate a violent world, which sees her as easy prey. But, though Sara is given the opportunity to enact her own violent revenge, her character arc is not one of triumph, or even character evolution. Instead, her character is tortured for what seems to be the sole purpose of inspiring her brother to make better choices.

This relegation of female characters to the sidelines is depressing for a film released in 2019, especially because it seems entirely possible to have a film looking at masculinity without reducing women to archetypes. In the world of "The Kid," there are mothers and virgins and girlfriends and whores, all of whom seem to exist entirely in relation to the men they watch fearfully from the sidelines. I know that a number of viewers will attempt to excuse these choices, saying that they are simply meant to be commentary on the roles that women were afforded in the Wild West, but I think it’s also very possible not to dehumanize female characters even when depicting an inherently sexist world. The men in "The Kid" may spend a lot of time beating and killing, but they also seem to have plenty of time to brood, ruminate, and wax on philosophically about their relationship to the world. Why not give the female characters a moment of self-reflection, of recognition that the female experience also includes making moral choices? 

The decision to flatten female characters into mere archetypes is an odd choice for a film that is clearly invested in considering the nature of domestic violence, which disproportionately impacts women, both in the real world, as well as the world of "The Kid." While the film makes a number of attempts to probe more deeply into the pain that undercuts cruelty, these explorations never go very far beneath the surface, nor do they shed new light on the ways that a legacy of violence leaves its fingerprints everywhere. By the end of the film, we don’t really gain any new moral clarity about what it means to confront a world where might makes right, and we are left with the discomforting idea that the only thing ultimately protecting women from violence is a good man with a gun. 

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Film credits.

The Kid (2019)

Rated R for violence and language.

Dane DeHaan as Billy

Vincent D'Onofrio as Sheriff Romero

Chris Pratt as Grant Cutler

Ethan Hawke as Pat Garrett

Adam Baldwin as Bob Orlinger

Keith Jardine as Pete

Tait Fletcher as Bill Cutler

Leila George as Sara

Jenny Gabrielle as Mirabel

Jake Schur as Rio

• Vincent D'Onofrio
• Andrew Lanham

Cinematographer

• Matthew J. Lloyd
• Latham Gaines
• Shelby Gaines

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Film Review: ‘The Kid’

Ethan Hawke and Dane DeHaan ride tall in Vincent D’Onofrio’s fresh take on the saga of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.

By Joe Leydon

Film Critic

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The extended dance of death played out by lawman Pat Garrett and outlaw Billy the Kid has inspired countless accounts of varying authenticity in literature, cinema and primetime TV, ranging from Sam Peckinpah’s violently elegiac 1973 Western (featuring a singularly hunky Kris Kristofferson as the desperado also known as William Bonney) to “The Tall Man,” a 1960-’62 NBC series which fancifully imagined Garrett (Barry Sullivan) and Billy (Clu Gulager) as frontier frenemies in Lincoln, N.M.

It’s to the considerable credit of actor-turned-director Vincent D’Onofrio and screenwriter Andrew Lanham that they’ve come up with a satisfyingly fresh take on this familiar mythos in “The Kid,” a consistently involving and often exciting drama in which the two Wild West icons are presented from the p.o.v. of an impressionable adolescent who weighs the pros and cons of each man as a role model.

The title refers not to Billy the Kid — persuasively portrayed here as a cocksure fatalist with a self-aware streak by Dane DeHaan — but rather 14-year-old Rio Cutler (newcomer Jake Schur ), who must go on the run with his older sister Sara (Leila George, D’Onofrio’s real-life daughter) after he fatally shoots their drunken father in a vain attempt to keep the rageaholic brute from beating their mother to death. Hot on their trail: Their equally ferocious Uncle Grant (Chris Pratt, impressively unhinged), who plans a monstrously cruel form of revenge for his murdered brother.

While fleeing to faraway Santa Fe, where they hope to connect with a friend of their mother’s, Rio and Sara find themselves sharing a secluded hideout with a gang led by Billy the Kid, whom Rio instantly recognizes because of the outlaw’s dime-novel notoriety. D’Onofrio boldly fuses history and hagiography when we get our first glimpse of Billy, who appears to us, from Rio’s perspective, as a golden-lit embodiment of the scruffy figure depicted in the most famous confirmed photo of the legendary outlaw. A nice touch: DeHaan’s Billy continues to look like the guy in that circa 1880 tintype – complete with battered hat and sweater — for most of the movie, even as his initial luster diminishes. Outlaws on the run, apparently, have few opportunities for wardrobe changes.

Billy accepts Rio as a kindred spirit — and maybe a surrogate younger brother — but their bonding is interrupted when a posse led by newly appointed sheriff Pat Garrett ( Ethan Hawke ) arrives on the scene. After a shootout that diminishes Billy’s crew, Garrett captures the outlaw and his surviving men, and transports them, along with Rio and Sara, to a nearby town. Billy continues to be a dangerously smooth-talking charmer, even while restrained with manacles, and maintains a strong influence over Rio. But the youngster also warms, gradually and guardedly, to Garrett, and very nearly reveals to the lawman what he and his sister are running away from. Sara convinces him not to confide in Garrett, however. It doesn’t take long for both siblings to regret their silence.

Schur (son of Jordan Schur, one of the film’s producers) is appropriately compelling as his character is craftily positioned to appear, almost Zelig-like, during key episodes in the oft-told tale of Billy and Garrett. But while he does a creditable job of propelling the narrative, and George is aptly affecting as Sara, the most intriguing scenes in “The Kid” are those that shift the focus to DeHaan and Hawke, as the two well-matched actors illuminate the underlining themes of mythology and destiny in Lanham’s screenplay.

Right from the start, Billy indicates that he accepts the inevitability of his violent demise as the unavoidable price of his fame. He insists to a credulous Rio that most of what is said or written about him isn’t true. In the same breath, however, he adds: “I guess it don’t really matter, though. I’ve done enough.” Hawke, who dominates the film through dint of his ability to neatly balance authority, sympathy, and moral doubt, chides Billy, an old friend turned elusive quarry, for exploiting his infamy: “You know what it means when they start writing about you? You’re already dead.”

Thanks to standout work by DP Matthew J. Lloyd and editor Katharine McQuerrey, the shootouts and showdowns in “The Kid” are presented with more than enough kinetic flair to please fans of both traditional Westerns produced in the 1940s and ‘50s, and more recent examples, like the 2016 remake of “The Magnificent Seven” (which, not coincidentally, also provided gainful employment for Hawke, Pratt, and D’Onofrio). But the action set pieces, too, are imbued with an awareness of legends and their consequences.

At one point, Garrett cunningly uses his own celebrity to draw a villain into a gunfight. Just a few scenes earlier, however, the lawman grimly acknowledges that what has sparked that celebrity will inspire others to match their gunmanship against his. “Won’t be long now,” he tells his faithful deputy (Benjamin Dickey, star of Hawke’s “Blaze”). What will happen? “People,” Garrett replies, then allows his voice to trail off. He doesn’t have to say anything else. His deputy understands. So do we.

Reviewed online, Houston, March 5, 2019. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 99 MIN.

• Production: A Lionsgate release of Lionsgate, Mimran Schur Pictures presentation, in association with Suretone Pictures of a Mimran Schur Pictures, Suretone Pictures production. Producers: Jordan Schur, Nick Thurlow, Sam Maydew, David Mimran. Executive producers: Richard Brickell, Carl Stubner, Christian Mercuri, Jonathan Bross, Jonah Loop, Jojo Chehebar, Ali Jazayeri, David Gendron, Samir Patel, Sejal Patel, Dillon Jordan.
• Crew: Director: Vincent D’Onofrio. Screenplay: Andrew Lanham; story: D’Onofrio, Lanham. Camera (color): Matthew J. Lloyd. Editor: Katharine McQuerrey. Music: Latham Gaines, Shelby Gaines.
• With: Ethan Hawke, Dane DeHaan, Jake Schur, Leila George, Chris Pratt, Benjamin Dickey, Adam Baldwin, Vincent D’Onofrio.

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• DVD & Streaming
• Comedy , Drama , Kids , Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Content Caution

In Theaters

• Bruce Willis as Russ Duritz (age 40); Spencer Breslin as Rusty Duritz (age 8); Emily Mortimer as Amy; Lily Tomlin as Janet; Jean Smart as Deirdre; Chi McBride as Kenny; Dana Ivey as Dr. Alexander; Daniel Von Bargen as Sam Duritz

Home Release Date

• Jon Turteltaub

Distributor

• Walt Disney

Movie Review

An abrasive, cynical, self-centered Los Angeles image consultant (Willis) has his world turned upside down when his 8-year-old self inexplicably appears on his doorstep. Russ Duritz, the grown-up jerk, meets Rusty Duritz, the idealistic kid. Upon surveying an expensive home full of stuff—but no one to share it with—the child expresses disappointment in the “loser” he becomes (“a dogless, chickless guy with a twitch”). Meanwhile, the man looks upon the boy with disdain—a chubby, awkward symbol of his painful youth. The two must sift through memories and try to figure out the purpose of this bizarre reunion. In other words, Willis must connect with his inner child and make the life changes necessary to keep from carrying out his Ebeneezer Scrooge-like existence to its logical, lonely, pathetic conclusion. Along for the ride are Amy, Russ’ spunky, romantic coworker, and Janet, his loyal, self-assured assistant (who has some of the film’s best moments as she playfully skewers Russ and refuses to be intimidated by him). The Kid meanders its way to a fairly predictable climax of personal redemption.

Positive Elements: Russ is vilified early, making his rudeness to shoppers, waitresses, airline passengers, public officials and even his own father vivid examples of how not to treat others. Similarly, when Russ describes his job to Rusty, he says, “That’s the fun of it. You boss people around,” though he doesn’t seem to be having much fun at all. A bitter Russ tells the boy that their family ended up moving twelve times during his youth, suggesting that a lack of roots and connectedness can negatively impact a child. Used to limited TV options, Rusty channel-surfs only to conclude, “Holy smokes, 99 channels and there’s nothing on.” Lying and spin-doctoring is condemned. Rusty bravely faces a predestined playground scuffle in order to rescue a three-legged dog and confront the school bully. An encounter between young Rusty and his dad (during a brief trip back to 1968) illustrates how parents can break their children’s spirits with harsh words and an unwillingness to validate their “childish” emotional needs. The tail end of that scene finds Rusty blaming himself for his mother’s untimely death, but fortunately his adult self is right there to maturely reassure him that it’s not his fault at all. After turning over a new leaf, Russ generously blesses Janet and her husband with tickets to Hawaii. The film implies that people can change, romantic notions keep the heart young and true satisfaction in life involves a loving marriage (and a Golden Retriever).

Spiritual Content: None

Sexual Content: Minor. There’s a passing reference to a public official’s intimate involvement with a mannequin. When Russ, plagued by hallucinations, tells his doctor that he’s seeing a guy in a plane, the psychiatrist’s facial expression betrays her assumption that he’s referring to a same-sex romance (“Not that kind of ‘seeing,’” he clarifies).

Violent Content: Russ takes Rusty to see a boxer pal for a few pointers on self-defense (there’s one blow below the belt). Russ accidentally gets kicked in the face. Boys fight on the playground, resulting in a bloody nose for Rusty. Convinced that his home security system needs an impregnable electric fence, Russ demands, “I want electrocution! I want charred flesh!”

Crude or Profane Language: Russ makes a crass comment about “fart bubbles.” His obnoxiousness finds him telling total strangers to “shut up.” There are about a half-dozen exclamations such as “oh, my g–!,” “I swear to g–” and “Holy Moses!”

Drug and Alcohol Content: Suffering from “hallucinations,” Russ demands that his doctor give him drugs, which she does. Later he takes all four pills at once. It’s played for laughs, but may give young viewers the idea that abusing “very strong medication” is the go-to answer for life’s problems.

Other Negative Elements: Russ lies to Amy by telling her that Rusty is his nephew. When Rusty announces, “I gotta pee,” he and Russ are shown from behind as they stand before urinals. There are a lot of comments made about Rusty’s weight and unattractiveness, mostly by Russ (who says of their young-adult years, “We’re still ugly, but we’re very smart”). The abundance of “fat jokes” may not help the esteem of overweight young viewers who see too much of themselves in Rusty.

Summary: The Kid has a good heart, but stumbles in its storytelling. Most notably, how did the whole time travel thing happen? Even if the underlying rules of fantasy ask us to suspend disbelief or grant amazing latitude, we still want to know what forces are at work. For example, Frequency recently asked audiences to believe that people could converse on a ham radio 30 years apart thanks to a wild meteorological phenomenon. It’s a stretch, but at least it gave some explanation. Not here. A mysterious biplane soars through the film, dropping a skywritten clue one moment and ushering Russ and Rusty into a time-warp the next. A greasy-spoon diner materializes and disappears without a trace. What of the people inside? The filmmakers never attempt to explain. Furthermore, a scene in which Russ describes his bizarre dilemma to a TV anchorwoman over a cup of coffee is ludicrous. She buys his story of being visited by his 8-year-old self too matter-of-factly. No thoughts that he may be insane. No need for proof. Not even a journalistic urge to get the freakish drama on the evening news. She’s just scripted in to suggest that the reason for the kid’s visit may be their need to learn from each other and complete unfinished business. I see short people .

This follow-up to Willis’ role in The Sixth Sense shows that he’s good with kids. He and Breslin seem to enjoy themselves, which makes watching them interact a lot of fun. In fact, one tirade finds Willis cracking a smile the way Harvey Korman used to break character on the old Carol Burnett Show . (It’s funny, but how did they miss that when they reviewed the dailies?) There are some genuinely funny moments, usually involving Lily Tomlin in a delightful supporting role. The messages about remembering what thrilled us as children and embracing those idealistic notions are great, though the final scenes feature Russ and Rusty sharing both malts and schmaltz. A little drippy for teens despite its good intentions. The Kid is sweet, upbeat and benign, yet curiously unsatisfying. It’s an after-school special posing as $8 entertainment.

Bob Smithouser

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The Kid Is an Old West Adventure, Refashioned as a Grotesque Nightmare

Unromanticized portraits of the Old West are nothing new these days — if anything, they’ve become their own cliché — but even so, the opening moments of  The Kid  suggest a whole new level of grit and savagery. Two kids watch in horror while their father viciously beats his wife. Then, a shot rings out, and we see that the boy has blown his father away, but not in time to save their mother. It gets worse: Soon, their psycho uncle (played by an unrecognizably scruffy Chris Pratt) shows up and, in a fit of spittle-flecked rage, starts beating the woman’s corpse. Needless to say, the kids — 15-year-old Rio (Jake Schur) and his older sister Sara (Leila George) — get the hell out of there, fleeing on horseback for as far as they can go.

But the violence is never far. Even as they worry that their murderous uncle might find them, Rio and Sara find themselves holed up with William Bonney, a.k.a. Billy the Kid (Dane DeHaan) and his gang of outlaws, themselves fleeing from a posse of men led by Pat Garrett (Ethan Hawke). Rio knows the story of Billy the Kid, and there’s an immediate connection between them, founded on their ghastly pasts. “I was 13. It happened to me,” Billy says to the boy, without having to hear any details of what actually happened. Then he gives the child a small stone. “This rock found me like you did.” All these moments, occurring so close to one another, give a sense of the contradictions  The Kid  attempts to work. It’s an old-fashioned boy’s own adventure — the kind of dime-store fantasy upon which the myth of the West was originally built — refashioned as a grotesque nightmare.

That’s a compelling structuring device, and that opening, primal scene of domestic violence spreads like a poison across the psyches of  The Kid ’s characters. But there’s something missing here, still — a dimensionality that will allow us to see these people as human rather than archetypes. DeHaan gives a spirited performance as Billy; he manages to convey confidence and charm beneath the ruthlessness, but he still feels like he’s playing a legend instead of a person. Hawke, always solid, gives lawman Garrett a melancholy stoicism that might work on paper, but fails to convey much of an inner life. As Rio, Schur does little more than look out wide-eyed and terrified at the world; he’s more guide than protagonist, it seems. And for a story that is partly about the violence and hatred faced by women in the Old West, the female characters are given relatively little to do, being mostly left to suffer in the background. The one surprising performance here is Pratt, who is alarmingly convincing as a screaming, relentless, over-the-top lunatic.

Directed by actor Vincent D’Onofrio,  The Kid  often suffers from a weirdly rushed quality. An early scene in which Garrett’s men converge on a shack being used by Billy and his gang is intercut so shoddily that you’re liable to think there’s something wrong with the projection. But the film also manages passages of startling, grim beauty. At one point, Rio witnesses the hanging of one of Billy’s gang, in front of a wild, shrieking crowd. The boy finds himself hiding right by the gallows pit, so that he’s staring straight at the convict as the trap door opens and the man plummets to his death. We see the top part of the dying man’s face, as the life quickly goes out of his eyes. It’s a brutal, heartbreaking moment, and the movie gives it to us straight on, in close-up, practically rubbing our faces in it. That sort of encapsulates what  The Kid  wants to accomplish in general. It succeeds sporadically as a corrective anti-myth, but as a story about people, it fails to come to life.

• movie review
• billy the kid
• chris pratt
• vincent d'onofrio
• ehtan hawke

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Screen Rant

The kid review: vincent d'onofrio's western is broody to a fault, the kid is a well-intentioned attempt to make a contemplative western, but ultimately mistakes gritty violence and broodiness for substance..

Vincent D'Onofrio gets behind the camera for only the second time on The Kid , a western loosely inspired by the real-life cat and mouse game between lawman Patrick Garrett and Henry McCarty, aka. Billy the Kid. D'Onofrio, of course, is a renowned actor thanks to his performances in movies like Full Metal Jacket and Men in Black (and, more recently, Marvel's Daredevil Netflix series), but his directorial debut on the 2010 horror musical Don't Go in the Woods was a critical misfire and has been largely forgotten since it came out. Sadly, his second film as a director may be doomed to a similar fate. The Kid is a well-intentioned attempt to make a contemplative western, but ultimately mistakes gritty violence and broodiness for substance.

Newcomer Jake Schur stars in The Kid as Rio Cutler, a young boy who's forced to go on the run with his sister, Sara (Leila George), after Rio shoots their father in a failed attempt to stop him from beating their mother to death. The pair find themselves pursued by their vicious uncle, Grant (Chris Pratt), and his band of thugs, who're determined to make the siblings pay for killing their boss' brother. Along the way, Rio and Sara wind up crossing paths with Billy the Kid (Dane DeHaan) and his gang of bandits, who are likewise on the run. In Billy's case, however, he's being pursed by his old friend-turned enemy and Lincoln County sheriff, Patrick Garrett (Ethan Hawke).

Shortly after, Billy is captured by Patrick and his men, who agree to take Rio and Sara to Santa Fe, under the pretense that the pair have been separated from their family (who were headed there) during a storm. Realizing it's only a matter of time before Patrick discovers the truth, Rio and Sara escape at the first opportunity they have. Unfortunately, they end up walking straight into a trap laid by Grant, who then kidnaps Sara and leaves her younger brother to suffer, knowing the dark fate that awaits her. Rio must therefore decide: will he become an outlaw and free Billy so they can rescue Sara together, or will he turn to Patrick for help and reveal the truth about what he did?

On paper, The Kid has the makings of an interesting coming of age story set against the backdrop of the Old American Frontier and the battle between a real-life lawman and law-breaker; it's the execution where things fall apart. The film tries to present Patrick Garrett and Billy the Kid as being flip sides of the same coin, in an effort to illustrate that Rio will have to make decisions that are difficult to live with, regardless of whether he chooses to embrace the life of an outlaw or a lawman. Unfortunately, in doing so, The Kid gets bogged down in ponderous conversations and exchanges that add little of value to its narrative and provide limited insight into the main characters. The pacing suffers for it, making the movie at large feel somewhat pretentious and longer than its fairly brisk runtime would suggest.

Most of these problems stem from the script by D'Onofrio and his cowriter, Andrew Lanham ( The Glass Castle ). The Kid 's screenplay brings to mind something like True Detective 's infamous second season, in the sense that it offers all the darkness and moody atmosphere that one expects from certain types of genre fare (in this case, a revisionist western), yet lacks a compelling plot to make its gloomy pontificating meaningful. It occasionally takes a stab at digging deeper into its characters' psychology and even acknowledges Rio's post-traumatic stress at times, but too often cuts these scenes short to make room for another grim moment of people being shot or yelling aggressively at one another. The film is even worse when it comes to its treatment of women, who exist here for little reason other than to be abused, assaulted, and/or hurt in some way by the men around them.

D'Onofrio fares a bit better as a director here and does a respectable job of bringing The Kid 's dangerous setting to cinematic life, with the aid of a quietly haunting score by Latham and Shelby Gaines (who also did the live score for Hawke's stage revival of A Lie of the Mind ). The film struggles when it comes to staging engaging shoot-outs or action sequences of any particular variety in fresh or engaging ways, but is sturdy in its quieter moments when characters are traveling from here to there. D'Onofrio shot much of The Kid on-location in New Mexico and cinematographer Matthew J. Lloyd (who worked on Daredevil and The Defenders ) paints the state's landscapes in rich tones, especially in the evening and early morning. It's the daytime scenes where the movie starts to look a little cheap and feels more like a collection of sets, as opposed to a living and breathing vision of the Old West.

Like many actors-turned directors, D'Onofrio takes a performance-driven approach to his storytelling here. Thing is, The Kid is a film that mistakes loud acting for good acting. This results in many a scene where people aggressively emote in some manner - be it by crying, raging out, guffawing, or (as mentioned earlier) simply yelling - yet fail to leave much of an emotional impact. Indeed, there's something slightly off about how the characters behave here in general. Patrick and Billy, for example, are meant to be a grizzled "cop" and charismatic criminal, but come off feeling more like a grumpy teacher and his (annoying) misbehaving student. The film has a talented cast, but its actors (which includes D'Onofrio, in a very small role) never seem to have a firm grip on who they're supposed to be playing. Again, the issue appears to stem from the script, more than anything else.

As far as misfires go, The Kid isn't terrible so much as it rings hollow. There have been better westerns made in recent years (heck, D'Onofrio, Hawke, and Pratt stared in one of them - namely, Antoine Fuqua's The Magnificent Seven ), many of which manage to de-romanticize the Old West in more inventive and groundbreaking ways than this film does. D'Onofrio deserves credit for aiming to make a western with something on its mind and not just empty thrills, but he's guilty of equating grittiness with saying something of value here. Those in the mood for a pensive western might find themselves more forgiving of the movie's flaws, but are still probably better off saving this one for a viewing at home down the road.

The Kid  is now playing in U.S. theaters. It is 99 minutes long and is rated R for violence and language.

Let us know what you thought of the film in the comments section!

THE KID (2019)

"the legend revisited once again".

What You Need To Know:

Miscellaneous Immorality: Stealing, revenge and a lawman oversteps his legal bounds at times.

More Detail:

THE KID is a Western based on the real-life figures Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.

The movie opens in a New Mexico shack where a man is violently beating his wife. The teenage children, Rio and Sara, hide in the adjacent room, but at a certain point the young boy Rio decides to defend his mother. He picks up a gun and shoots his father in self-defense. When their dead father’s brother, Grant (played by Chris Pratt), shows up, he angrily attacks Rio and Sara, and they’re forced to flee.

On the run from their violent Uncle Grant, Rio and Sara cross paths with the notorious Billy the Kid and his crew, who are wanted for multiple murders. Billy shows kindness to the two runaways, and Rio especially finds solace in Billy’s demeanor. It’s not long, however, before a lawman, Pat Garrett (Ethan Hawke), finds and captures Billy and his crew. Rio and Sara hide from Garrett the fact that Rio killed their father, and fabricate a lie about being separated from their father. Pat agrees to take them to Santa Fe, New Mexico to help them before he hauls Billy the Kid to a town where he can stand trial and pay the penalty for his crimes.

Once they get to Santa Fe, however, their Uncle Grant finds them and takes Sara to be a sex slave for his men. Rio, now all alone, comes up with a last-ditch plan. If he helps Billy the Kid escape from jail and a guaranteed execution, maybe Billy will help him save his sister from his uncle. Will Rio’s plan work?

THE KID reunites Ethan Hawke, Chris Pratt and Vincent D’Onofrio who starred together in the 2017 remake of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN. D’Onofrio directs THE KID from a script he co-wrote. Somewhat disjointed, the movie lacks clear direction until the movie’s second half. Of course, many, many movies about Billy the Kid have been made, including THE LEFT HANDED GUN, THE OUTLAW, PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID, and several others. Each rendition offers a new take on the western legend who’s become more folklore than history.

D’Onofrio’s THE KID doesn’t make Billy the central figure. Instead, it focuses on the perspective of the young Rio, who admires Billy. The performances from Ethan Hawke and Dane DeHaan as Garrett and Billy are terrific, though the wants and motivations for Billy aren’t always consistent or logical. Pratt creates a pretty loathsome villain as Grant, but his immaculately structured beard is comically unrealistic and serves as a major distraction.

Halfway through the movie, it seems as if the story is siding with a romanticized view of lawlessness as Rio tries to free Billy from the harsh lawman Pat Garrett. [SPOILERS FOLLOW] However, in the end Rio learns that Billy is just a selfish criminal, and he should’ve gone to Garrett for help from the beginning. Rio does go to Garrett eventually, and this leads to an unexpected heroic twist that completely changes the story’s moral trajectory, creating a redemptive conclusion.

That said, THE KID is very violent throughout, with over the top blood splatter and gruesome deaths. There’s also lots of strong profanities and obscenities, including many “f” bombs. Because of these elements, extreme caution is advised for THE KID.

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‘Monkey Man’ Review: Vengeance Is His

Dev Patel stars as Kid, a human punching bag who comes up with a plan to avenge a past wrong. The hits keep coming and the hero keeps taking them in this rapid-fire film.

By Manohla Dargis

The thriller “Monkey Man” opens on a tender scene and a nod to the power of storytelling, only to quickly get down to down-and-dirty, action-movie business with a flurry of hard blows and faster edits. For the next two frenetic hours, it repeatedly cuts back to the past — where a mother and child happily lived once upon a bucolic time — before returning to the grubby, raw-knuckle present. There, the hits keep coming and the hero keeps taking them, again and again, in a movie that tries so hard to keep you entertained, it ends up exhausting you.

Set largely in a fictional city in India, “Monkey Man” stars Dev Patel as a character simply called Kid who, in classic film-adventure fashion, is out to avenge a past wrong. To do that, Kid, who works as a human punching bag in shadowy ring fights (Sharlto Copley plays the M.C.), must take repeat beatings so that he can, like all saviors, triumphantly rise. Before he does, he has to execute a complicated plan that pits him against power brokers working both sides of the law. As with most genre movies, you can guess how it all turns out for our hero.

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Kid’s half-baked plan involves an underworld operation with national political designs, and it takes him to one of those dens of iniquity that movies love, filled with slinky women, thuggish men and lines of white powder that lead to corridors of power. As the story comes into blurry focus, Patel gestures at the real world and folds in some mythology, but these elements only create expectations for a complex story than never emerges. What mostly registers is an overarching sense of exploitation and desperation: Everyone is always hustling someone else. That gives the movie a provocative pessimism, one that Patel seems eager to counter with the flashbacks to Kid’s mother, Neela (Adithi Kalkunte), a saintly figure in chokingly tight close-up.

Patel, who directed the movie from a script written by him, Paul Angunawela and John Collee, is an appealing screen presence and you’re rooting for him — both as a character and as a filmmaker — right from the start. As an actor, he was built for empathy, with a slender frame and melting eyes that he can light up or expressively dim to create a sense of vulnerability. His performance in “Monkey Man” requires a lot from him below the neck — he has sculpted his body into stunt-ready shape, as a bit of striptease shows — but it’s his beseeching eyes that draw you to him. That’s especially crucial because while the messy story crams in a great deal — sad ladies, musclemen, brutal cops, exploited villagers, a false prophet and the Hindu god Hanuman, who appears as half-human, half-monkey — it never coheres.

Patel does some fine work in “Monkey Man” even if its fight sequences rarely pop, flow or impress; they’re energetic but uninspired. Far more striking is an extended sequence early in the story that begins with a thief on a scooter robbing a woman at an outdoor cafe. The bandit zooms off only to soon hand the pilfered item off to someone else who — as the camera hurries alongside each courier — rapidly snakes through the streets before passing the stolen object to another person (and so on) until the package finally lands in Kid’s hands. It’s a witty, flashy bit that announces Patel’s filmmaking ambitions and visually expresses how the story itself zigs and zags even as it hurtles forward.

That sequence — with its rush of bodies and scenery — also encapsulates one of the movie’s more frustrating flaws: its unrelenting, near-unmodulated narrative pace. For much of “Monkey Man” it’s just go, go, go . Rapid-fire editing is a feature, not a bug, in contemporary action movies, but even John Wick takes an occasional breather. (The “Wick” franchise is an obvious influence on “Monkey Man,” so much so there’s even an adorable dog.) When Kid does slow down midway it’s only because the character needs to heal, recalibrate his thinking and ready himself for the final showdown, which he does at a temple watched over by a towering statue and a welcoming group of hijras, who are referred to as India’s third gender .

It’s too bad that Kid doesn’t stay longer at the temple, where the company is charming and includes one of those wisdom-spouting elders, Alpha (Vipin Sharma, a sly scene-stealer), who guide heroes onto the right path. At the temple, Kid trains in time with a tabla maestro (Zakir Hussain) in a nicely syncopated interlude that makes you wish the musician had played throughout the movie to help with its pacing.

All too soon, though, Kid flexes his rested muscles and resumes his quest, racing ahead as Patel folds in flashbacks and vaguely waves a hand at the world that exists. By that point it’s clear that while Patel wants to say something about that world, however unclear, his character would be happier delivering beat downs in that magical, mystical land where John Wick and other violent screen fantasies live, fight and die in blissful unreality.

Monkey Man Rated R for, you know, violence. Running time: 2 hours 1 minute. In theaters.

Manohla Dargis is the chief film critic for The Times. More about Manohla Dargis

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The Wild Robot

After a shipwreck, an intelligent robot called Roz is stranded on an uninhabited island. To survive the harsh environment, Roz bonds with the island's animals and cares for an orphaned baby ... Read all After a shipwreck, an intelligent robot called Roz is stranded on an uninhabited island. To survive the harsh environment, Roz bonds with the island's animals and cares for an orphaned baby goose. After a shipwreck, an intelligent robot called Roz is stranded on an uninhabited island. To survive the harsh environment, Roz bonds with the island's animals and cares for an orphaned baby goose.

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Children of the Sun Review

Numb her some, with a bullet..

Children of the Sun bills itself as a tactical third-person puzzle-shooter, but not all of those descriptors are equally relevant. Discard any attachment you have to the idea of it being a tactical third-person shooter in any traditional or meaningful way, and focus purely on the puzzle part. Children of the Sun, rather, is a supernatural sniper game where you control the path and speed of just one bullet per level – one part Hitman: Sniper Assassin, one part Seinfeld magic loogie . Essentially, you need to pause, pivot, and plot your single shot to kill every enemy on each level, all without losing said bullet beyond the boundaries of the map, or striking a part of the environment. It’s clever and compulsive, and I’ve found stitching together successful runs very satisfying. However, it definitely doesn’t elicit much sympathy for its mask-wearing main character, and I’m not sure it’s quite as replayable as it thinks it is.

The premise of Children of the Sun is simple, and it’s relayed in an equally simple fashion, with no voiceover – just quick sequences of sharp, hand-drawn artwork. That delivery is impressively effective, though. Whatever language you speak, I’d expect you’ll be able to easily follow the story.

There are occasional subtitles, but they don’t seem to contribute anything especially crucial. Our unnamed character – The Girl – is hell bent on killing her way through The Cult in order to snuff out its sadistic chief – The Leader – who murdered her parents. Also… she has paranormal powers that allow her to move things with her mind. That’s all you need to know, and that’s really all you’ll ever know. She’s upset, but her telekinetic killing spree is soothing her pain. Or making her horny. I think it’s one or the other.

It’s not that deep but, admittedly, it doesn’t need to be. It’s a revenge story, and I love revenge stories. You don’t exactly need a diving bell to get to the bottom of Death Wish, for instance. That said, it would’ve been nice for Children of the Sun to have generated a little more empathy for The Girl. She doesn’t exactly have any personality to speak of; she’s kind of just a disaffected clump of adolescent angst in a weird mask. Arguably, the solution here is just to fill in the blanks yourself but, when I do that, the most I get is someone who spent her formative years getting picked last for team sports and listening to a lot of Thirty Seconds To Mars. It’s possible I’ve just outgrown Children of the Sun’s overt edginess.

What's the best sniper movie?

Bullet with butterfly wings.

Outside of the teenage Tumblr tone of the main character, Children of the Sun has gone for a deliberately grainy and stylised PS2-era aesthetic. It does the job nicely, but sometimes it’s just a little too dark for its own good. I have, for instance, occasionally been forced to restart levels after striking objects I couldn’t actually see until I hit them. Enemies do glow, though. This is smart because it makes Children of the Sun less about seeking out your prey in the first place, and more about the process of putting together the perfect sequence of kill shots. This is the fun part. I would expect that needing to desperately scan for unfairly camouflaged cultists while also trying to nail a run would’ve easily ruined what Children of the Sun does right.

It certainly isn’t overwhelmed with controls or buttons; indeed, everything is performed via the left and right mouse buttons, plus the scroll wheel. It’s quite easy to pick up. The grungy, grim tone is unlikely to be to everyone’s tastes, but it’s very straightforward and approachable to otherwise play.

The Girl can strafe left or right at the beginning of each level – sometimes in a small space, sometimes circling the entire perimeter – but that’s the only navigation. 99% of Children of the Sun is spent controlling a bullet, not The Girl herself. I’ll concede her extremely limited movement does feel pretty pointless early on, but later into the roughly five-hour run time it becomes crucial to manoeuvre to the right firing angle to ensure you’ll be able to take everyone down before running out of bullet tricks.

Those tricks are thoughtfully rationed out as the levels progress, and include things like using the fuel caps of cars to cause an explosion to kill nearby enemies and give you a bonus chance to redirect your bullet, or the ability to gently steer it by several degrees to strike moving targets. Later still, you’ll learn the ability to rapidly accelerate bullets to smash through armour, and to use successful hits of enemy weak spots to bank an on-demand trajectory change in any direction. Adding these new techniques to the overall system keeps things from becoming stagnant, and the way in which Children of the Sun encourages us to experiment and combine all these tricks is where it excels most. Need some height? Shoot a bird to gain a better view of the level and a bonus trajectory change while you’re at it. Too close to an armoured goon? Rack up some weak spot strikes on some standard cultists, send your shot out into the distance, and then re-fire it in from afar with a little extra sauce on it.

Children of the Sun - First Screenshots

Master of a Speeding Bullet

There’s a scoring system at work within Children of the Sun, and even leaderboards attached to each level to compare your best attempts with both your friends and the rest of the world. I expect this is nice if you’re a ruthlessly competitive type, but killing everyone in a level in a slightly different order (to see if there’s a marginally faster way to do it) isn’t really enough to have me leaping back in to replay all the levels. The layouts of some of the later maps proved complex enough to tempt me back for another few tries but, with the enemies always more or less in the same spots, it’s a bit like solving the same crossword puzzle over and over. It’s just not significantly satisfying after the first time around.

For clarity’s sake, one last thing I really ought to add is that when I say bullet, I really mean cartridge. Unfortunately, Children of the Sun commits the cardinal slow motion sin of showing a bullet in flight as the entire cartridge – with the case and primer still attached. Clearly, The Girl went to the Portal turret school of ballistics (where firing the whole bullet means 65% more bullet per bullet!) It’s a small goof in the scheme of things but it’s a pretty dorky error, and it’s a shame it’s made it all the way to the final product. I guess you could potentially mount an argument that The Girl’s telekinetic powers allow her to move an unfired cartridge through the air like a deadly dart, but it wouldn’t really stand up. If that were really the case, why does it come out of the rifle like that? Why would she need a rifle at all? She could just chuck killer cartridges through the air like Charlie Sheen in Hot Shots! Part Deux.

Strip essentially everything out of the Sniper Elite series except the bullets – then make the bullets magic and capable of steering, stopping, and speeding up – and you’re maybe four-fifths of the way to understanding what Children of the Sun is. Either way, puzzle-shooter is probably too broad a term to adequately describe it, which makes it a rare commodity. That is, it’s weird, and it’s different, and it’s not really like anything I’ve played before. However, while this slickly-packaged and shrewd supernatural sniping game is packed with satisfying spatial problems to solve (and shoot), once you’ve had success on a map there’s not a great deal to glean from trying it again.

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1921, Comedy/Drama, 1h 0m

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Critics Consensus

Charles Chaplin' irascible Tramp is given able support from Jackie Coogan as The Kid in this slapstick masterpiece, balancing the guffaws with moments of disarming poignancy. Read critic reviews

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The kid   photos.

Chaplin's first full-length feature is a silent masterpiece about a little tramp who discovers a little orphan and brings him up but is left desolate when the orphanage reclaims him. Chaplin directed, produced and starred in the film, as well as composed the score.

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Original Language: English

Director: Charlie Chaplin

Producer: Charlie Chaplin

Writer: Charlie Chaplin

Release Date (Theaters): Jan 21, 1921  original

Release Date (Streaming): Sep 2, 2016

Runtime: 1h 0m

Production Co: Charles Chaplin Productions

Cast & Crew

Charlie Chaplin

Jackie Coogan

Edna Purviance

Carl Miller

Granville Redmond

The Man's Friend (uncredited)

Edna's Maid (uncredited)

Policeman (uncredited)

Henry Bergman

Night Shelter Keeper (uncredited)

Charles Reisner

Bully (uncredited)

Raymond Lee

His Kid Brother (uncredited)

News & Interviews for The Kid

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Now Streaming: Ex Machina , Seinfeld , and More

Critic Reviews for The Kid

Audience reviews for the kid.

Charlie Chaplin and little Jackie Coogan are delightful in this film, which has a tramp (ahem, The Tramp) finding a baby who has been abandoned by its mother. There are several funny and endearing scenes, including the two of them running a scam whereby Coogan breaks windows by throwing rocks at them, runs off as fast as his little legs can carry him, and then Chaplin is Johnny-on-the-spot to repair them. Another has Coogan getting into a fight with another boy, leading to Chaplin getting into a fight with his (very large, seemingly padded) older brother. Things get sad and pull the heartstrings when the city comes to take Coogan away to an orphan asylum, and it's interesting that the film touches on the rights of an adoptive parent ("are you his father?"). The extended dream sequence towards the end is strange and creative, and I was quite surprised to read later that Lita Grey, who plays the 'flirtatious angel' in that sequence, was only 12 years old at the time. Three years later, when Chaplin (aged 35) had an affair with her (if you call having sex with a 15 year old 'having an affair'), she got pregnant, and the pair married in Mexico. The marriage would only last four years, and Chaplin would divorce her amidst scandal and an enormous alimony payment. I digress. 'The Kid' is a charming film, though a little thin in its plot, and quite brisk at 53 minutes.

Like so much of Chaplin's early filmography, "The Kid" takes a plot that could easily be maudlin and injects it with inspired humor and amusing flights of fancy.

Having seen several of Charlie Chaplin's films now, The Kid was yet another gem in his long-running list of classic films. I think the opening intertitle said it best "a picture with a smile and perhaps, a tear." It was much like many of his other films in that it blends slapstick comedy with an incredible amount of heart. I watch hundreds of films every year, and the number one thing that bothers me is when a film tries to be something it's not. Whether that means it focuses too much on one genre or tries to do way too much with its script, I can assure you that The Kid does not have these issues. I think this is most prevalent when the Tramp, played by Chaplin, is running across rooftops trying to catch up to his adopted son being taken away by the authorities. I laughed multiple times as Chaplin pulls the clumsy Tramp gags he does so well but it was hard to hold back tears a few seconds later as he reunites for a few moments with his son. The performances are also worth mentioning. Jackie Coogan, who plays the five year old boy, John, that Chaplin adopts, really nails the humor. As far as I know it was the first major role for someone so young, and Coogan gives a memorable performance. The scene in which he is breaking windows for his father to fix and constantly running away from the police officer is very reminiscent of so many of Chaplin's gags. Although Coogan was great, Chaplin is why you watch the film, and I think The Kid is about as personal of a performance as you will get from Chaplin. He had just buried his infant son shortly before filming began on The Kid. His performance is evidently flooded with closeted emotion. Even considering my favorite film of his, City Lights, I think The Kid is his most emotionally powerful film. I think the fact that this film came out in 1921, shows just how ahead of its time it was. Before the film and even a little bit after, adult actors were playing child roles. At least Chaplin and the studio had the guts to put their faith in a young five year old, and I think everyone can agree, it paid off. The film does have some dated elements though. For instance, the bully that the Tramp fights is noticeably wearing a stuffed shirt to make him look buff and more intimidating, something that films would never do now-in-days. Considering the bully punches through bricks and takes down a light post with his bare hands, I guess it was worth it. The slapstick comedy angles are very much a figure of silent films in the 20's. The stupidity of some of the fight sequences are both very dated but endlessly entertaining. So even though The Kid can be taken as a slapstick comedy, I think it's the dramatic and thought provoking elements that make the film so special. To a certain extent, this film deals with the age old question of "who is qualified to be a parent?" Of course, it appears the film does have a happy ending but I wonder what happens next. What happens after the lady gets her son back, does the Tramp lose him forever? What gives her the right to take back her baby after giving it up in the first place? Is the fact that the Tramp poor play a factor into the decision to take the kid away from him? I think it's these questions that make this film more than just a laugh out loud comedy and a film that should be studied and understood to be way ahead of its time. I think that's why I always seem to enjoy Chaplin's films, they deal with political and real life issues without bashing these ideas and opinions over the viewer's heads. To me, The Kid exudes a language unspoken in that it takes on issues and ideas that just weren't looked at in the early 20's. The Kid's balance of humor and heart along with its strong political ideas make it one of Chaplin's best, and certainly his most personal and emotional filled films. 9.1/10

Although I find unnecessary the dream sequence near the end, this is a great 6-reeler that finds the perfect balance between funny and touching - and the highlight is sweet little co-star Jackie Coogan, who steals every scene he is in.

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‘The Fall Guy’s First Reactions Are In and the Action Rom-Com Is Living Up to the Hype

A fresh batch of reactions have arrived hot off the press from the film’s screening at CinemaCon in Las Vegas.

The Big Picture

• Critics are praising The Fall Guy as a pulse-pounding, laugh-out-loud action rom-com with impeccable chemistry between Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt.
• Steven Weintraub calls the movie awesome, tweeting about his third screening, showcasing the film's undeniable appeal.
• The Fall Guy follows Colt Seavers, a stuntman pulled back into the industry to save a film and reunite with his ex.

Audiences are now just one month away from witnessing David Leitch’s latest action-packed flick , The Fall Guy , and first reactions are rolling in from the festivities at this year’s CinemaCon in Las Vegas, Nevada . The movie has been one of the most hotly anticipated titles of 2024, and it’s easy to understand why. Along with Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt , the feature is overflowing with notable names, while Leitch has promised that it will be his biggest project yet - kicking things into high gear and pushing the boundaries of his cast, crew, and stunt team. With Perri Nemiroff as our boots on the ground during the film’s world premiere at SXSW ( of which she gave a glowing review ), we now have our first pieces of insight from others in the industry as well as Collider’s Britta DeVore , who was in attendance at the film’s CinemaCon screening.

According to DeVore, “ The Fall Guy was a pulse-pounding thrill ride that you’ll want to catch on the biggest screen possible. For every explosive action sequence, there’s a laugh-out-loud moment, and not only do Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt take center stage with their electrifying romantic tension, but the supporting characters absolutely steal the show. Kicking off the season of summer blockbusters, this one will be tough to follow. ”

While Collider's Steve Weintraub hasn't shared his full opinions on the film yet, he did share that he was on his third screening of The Fall Guy , which certainly speaks for itself.

What Are Critics Saying About 'The Fall Guy'?

While CinemaCon isn't the first time that The Fall Guy has screened for critics this month, it is the first time that we're getting to see a lot of reactions from moviegoers last night. Most seem to be in agreement that the film is a lot of fun, including Germain Lussier who echoed Weintraub's sentiments about wanting to see the film more than once.

Hunter Bolding and Doug Jamieson both praised Gosling and Blunt's "immaculate" and "electric" chemistry. That chemistry appears to be a vital aspect of The Fall Guy , considering Daniel Howat called the film an "action rom-com" which is certainly a selling point to audiences that are starved for more rom-coms.

What Is ‘The Fall Guy’ About?

Stealing its premise and title from the Lee Majors -led 1980s TV series of the same name, The Fall Guy tells the story of a washed-up stuntman named Colt Seavers (Gosling) who finds himself back in biz on the set of a major film . But this isn’t just any gig, as Colt will be working alongside his ex-girlfriend, Jody Moreno (Blunt) - the film’s director. When things go horribly awry after the leading man seemingly vanishes into thin air, Colt risks life and limb to find the star and bring him back to set in hopes of saving the movie and reigniting the spark with his ex.

Along with Gosling and Blunt, The Fall Guy brings in a slew of other gargantuanly talented names including Winston Duke ( Us ), Hannah Waddingham ( Ted Lasso ), Stephanie Hsu ( Everything Everywhere All at Once ), Aaron Taylor-Johnson ( Kraven the Hunter ), and Teresa Palmer ( A Discovery of Witches ).

Learn everything there is to know about Leitch’s ode to stunt performers here in our guide and check out the trailer below. The Fall Guy crashes into cinemas on May 3.

The Fall Guy

Colt Seavers is a stuntman who left the business a year earlier to focus on both his physical and mental health. He's drafted back into service when the star of a mega-budget studio movie, which is being directed by his ex, goes missing.

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