Plot: An irreverent high-speed thriller follows a former teenage getaway driver who is dragged back into her unsavory past when a previous employer offers her the chance to save the life of her chronically unreliable ex-boyfriend.
Review: If I had a choice between the over-the-top theatricality of The Fast Saga and The Italian Job or the more grounded world of Drive, Ronin, or The Usual Suspects, I would take the latter every time. While Baby Driver is a rare blend of both, Edgar Wright’s film skews more unbelievable than believable. Shawn Simmons’ feature directorial debut, Eenie Meanie, looked in trailers to be closer to Baby Driver. Still, I was pleasantly surprised to find it an engaging character drama with an indie sensibility that makes for a nice blend of action, drama, and some humor. With solid performances from Samara Weaving alongside Karl Glusman and Andy Garcia, Eenie Meanie is an unexpected blast. (Check out our interviews with the cast!)
Eenie Meanie follows Edie (Samara Weaving), whom we first meet in Cleveland at the age of fourteen, as she has to drive for her drug addict mom and dad and gets in trouble with the law. Seventeen years later, Edie goes to college and works at a bank as she tries to pull her life together. When a botched bank robbery forces Edie to reconnect with her ex-boyfriend, John (Karl Glusman), Edie is forced back to work for crime boss Nico (Andy Garcia), to whom John owes a lot of money. Nico, who gave Edie the nickname of “Eenie Meanie,” wants her to resume her role as the best getaway driver around to pull off a massive heist at a local casino worth millions of dollars. Edie reluctantly agrees, which makes John very happy, much to Edie’s dismay. The setup of pushing Edie and John back together is just the start as the film shifts into heist mode for the remainder of the running time.
Over the hour-and-forty-minute running time of Eenie Meanie, there are only a handful of actual car chase sequences, but they are all expertly filmed. Not as flashy as some of the aforementioned action movies, they do balance solid editing and camerawork that keeps the momentum churning. An early foot chase is fun, but the bulk of Eenie Meanie is character-based scenes, most of which focus on Edie herself. Samara Weaving has had impressive showcase roles before, including Ready or Not, The Babysitter, Azrael, and Borderline, but Eenie Meanie is one of her strongest to date. Edie is a great character who aspires for a better life but struggles with her past, embodied by various men, including her father (Steve Zahn), John, and Nico. While the film avoids delving into elements of toxic masculinity as a theme, there is an empowerment thread in Edie’s arc that Samara Weaving uses to build depth into her performance.
Karl Glusman, giving off a Pete Davidson vibe, plays John as a perennial loser who has a connection with Edie that keeps them bound by love, for better or worse. The relationship between Edie and John is often frustrating, but it plays into the dynamic of who Edie is and where she wants to go. The supporting cast is full of familiar faces playing predominantly two-dimensional roles, including Randall Park as card counter Leo, Mike O’Malley as Nico’s second-in-command George, Kyanna Simone as Edie’s friend Baby Girl, and Chris Bauer as Gary the bartender. Former NFL player Marshawn Lynch is a solid antagonist as rival driver Perm Walter, and Jermaine Fowler is an intriguing presence as the unnamed Chaperone. Lynch and Fowler dig into their roles the most, but neither is developed enough to care about. Sometimes, I wish the supporting players had been fleshed out more, but Eenie Meanie is centered on Samara Weaving’s character, which means everyone else takes a back seat. Andy Garcia may be the exception, with Nico having three key scenes, including a stellar one at the film’s end.
Produced by Deadpool scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, Eenie Meanie is the feature film directorial debut of Shawn Simmons, who also wrote the script. Simmons has a long career writing for sitcoms like School of Rock, Awkward, and Kirby Buckets, as well as the underwhelming John Wick spin-off The Continental. Simmons is also the creator of Wayne, a short-lived Prime Video series that shares some thematic connections to Eenie Meanie and has developed into a cult favorite. Simmons has a definite aptitude for blending action and characters with this film, feeling the grounded character drama every bit with punctuated moments of car chase action. I expected this movie to be very different, and I am thankful for the welcome surprise of how deftly Edie’s character is built around her past and potential future. Simmons could have turned this into a cliché heist movie, but instead creates the humor and drama into a film woven with violence and action.
With a solid soundtrack and some impressive car sequences, Eenie Meanie is a fast and fun movie that keeps the pedal down from start to finish. There is just enough comedy to break some of the more tense moments, but this is a surprisingly well-crafted character drama. Samara Weaving impresses again with an outstanding performance, followed closely by Karl Glusman and Andy Garcia. I enjoyed several other supporting performances, but I hoped they would have been developed a little bit more. Eenie Meanie is not focused entirely on vehicle-based action, but when it is, it works well. The rest of the time, this is an intense crime drama with some emotional elements that work very well. Eenie Meanie is a fun blend of elements anchored by the consistently excellent Weaving, making for a solid debut for Shawn Simmons as director.
Eenie Meanie premieres on August 22nd on Hulu.
Source:
JoBlo.com
