Kin
Director: Jonathan Baker, Josh Baker
Writer: Daniel Casey
Based on: the Bakers’ short film Bag Man
Cast: Myles Truitt, Jack Reynor, Dennis Quaid, Zoë Kravitz, James Franco, Carrie Coon, Ian Matthews, Gavin Fox, Stephane Garneau-Monten, Lukas Penar, Carleigh Beverly
Seen on: 5.9.2018

Plot:
Jimmy (Jack Reynor) was just released from prison and comes home to his father Hal (Dennis Quaid) and his adoptive brother Eli (Myles Truitt). Things are tense between Jimmy and Hal. Meanwhile Eli sticks to his routine of scavenging in abandoned buildings, looking for copper. Instead he finds dead bodies and a mysterious weapon. That weapon might be just the thing that could help Jimmy settle old debts with his former employer. But Eli isn’t the only one who knows that it exists.

Kin is a confused film that doesn’t really know what it wants to say. Despite a couple of good things, it ultimately doesn’t convince.

There are good things about Kin, as I said. I thought that Truitt was really good, especially for such a young actor and I liked the chemistry he had with Jack Reynor. That there are some pretty good and well-known actors in supporting roles is also a plus.

I also thought that they were pretty clever about some of the workarounds that are necessary when you make a SciFi film with special effects on a tight budget. You could learn a thing or two about reducing a budget and still have the film look nice by watching what they do.

But you definitely shouldn’t try and do what they do when it comes to plotting. It was way too inconsistent and confusing. I could only shake my head at the film a few times. It lacked awareness about what kind of a story it wanted to tell. Crime drama? Brother drama? Of course, things can be combined, but you should know what you’re on about and try to find a consistent tone for both. Throw in some sexism (pretty much the only woman in the film is a stripper with a heart of gold? Please, dudes, PUH-lease), and you got a pretty frustrating film. And the explanation at the end was completely unsatisfying.

It’s unfortunate. The film had potential, but squanders it. It never really comes together, making it pretty obvious why the film fell flat.

Summarizing: can be safely skipped.