Kin
Oh, look, it’s another kid finding another dangerous, high-tech, futuristic device guaranteed to get him hunted down.
Cast of Characters:
Jimmy Solinski – Jack Reynor
Milly – Zoe Kravitz
Morgan Hunter – Carrie Coon
Hal Solinski – Dennis Quaid
Taylor Balik – James Franco
Elijah Solinski – Myles Truitt
Director – Jonathan Baker & Josh Baker
Screenplay – Daniel Casey
Based on the short film Bag Man by Jonathan Baker & Josh Baker
Producer – Shawn Levy, Dan Cohen, Jeff Arkuss, David Gross & Jesse Shapira
Rated PG-13 for gun violence and intense action, suggestive material, language, thematic elements and drinking.
Elijah Solinski (Myles Truitt) is young black kid growing up on the rough side of Detroit with his hard-but-loving adoptive father Hal (Dennis Quaid), who’s trying to raise his child right following the death of his wife and the incarceration of his older, biological son Jimmy (Jack Reynor). One day, while out rummaging for scrap to sell, Elijah stumbles upon some dead bodies in an abandoned building, which usually wouldn’t be a big deal to him ’cause… well, it’s Detroit. However, these particular dead bodies appear to be futuristic soldiers, and the big giveaway there is the futuristic gun he finds that surprisingly responds automatically to his touch.
So Elijah, being the smart, well-raised and rational kid that he is, leaves the gun alone ’cause he knows messing with this type of sci-fi gadgetry will only lead to big trouble.
Cue the end credits.
Nope, what actually happens is the boy very predictably can’t resist the lure of the weapon, and decides to bring it home, which probably won’t bother everyone in the neighborhood ’cause… well, it’s Detroit and they’re used to this.
Meanwhile, Jimmy has finally been released from prison and returns home to his family, where he thanks them for welcoming him back by bringing along with him a whole new set of aggravating troubles. Having fallen $60,000 in debt to local crime lord Taylor Balik (James Franco), Jimmy has to find a way to pay him back ASAP, or else very bad things will happen to him and his family.
Don’t worry, Jimmy. Your brother can cover you with that superpowered, intergalactic firearm he just picked up.
After a robbery for Jimmy and Taylor goes south – ’cause clearly prison time had no positive, rehabilitative effect on him – Jimmy decides to hit the road with both the money and his brother Elijah. Along the way, the bump into the PG-13 friendly stripper Milly (Zoe Kravitz), who joins them on their venture ’cause she has no problem tagging along with complete strangers, and also ’cause Elijah just got done totally destroying her place of work, so she’s newly unemployed and now has a whole lot of free time on their hands. What they don’t realize, though, is that while continuing on their journey, they are being chased down by law enforcement looking for Jimmy; Taylor, who wants to kill him; and a pair of those futuristic soldiers who have traced their weapon and will do whatever it takes to get it back.
See, this is what happens when we encourage kids to be curious.
Well, here we are at the end August with another young-adult themed sci-fi yarn about a kid finding something and (or) getting themselves involved in a dire predicament that is destined to alter their lives forever (at some point, these kids are gonna have to learn that when in doubt, leave whatever it is alone, turn around and don’t look back). Between The Darkest Minds, last week’s A.X.L. and now Kin, it’d be no surprise if moviegoers find themselves tuckered out from YA fatigue. In fact, judging from The Darkest Minds and A.X.L.’s box office returns, the fatigue has already set in.
Yep… such is August, aka the summer season’s “January”.
Based on their 2014 short film Bag Man, Kin is the feature-length directing debut of twin filmmakers Jonathan and Josh Baker. Bag Man was able to combine great special effects and a strong sense of intrigue that built up to a satisfying conclusion, even if said conclusion felt more like a “to be continued” teaser for a feature-length version. After gaining buzz during its festival circuit, particularly at the SXSW Film Festival, Bag Man was given the feature-length go-ahead.
The primary problem many shorts face when expanding to a full-length feature is that some concepts that work well within the time constraints of a short wind up suffering from excessive padding when stretched out to a feature-length runtime. Of course, there can be exceptions. In recent years, one exception was the feature-length version of David F. Sandberg’s hit YouTube short Lights Out, which had the benefit of strong performances and Sandberg’s proficient technical craftsmanship, especially in the way he toyed with lighting and shadows to generate suspense.
So, is Kin able to follow Lights Out’s example, or does it sink to the woeful depths of A.X.L. and The Darkest Minds?
The Good: Whereas A.X.L. had a cast of mostly new faces, Kin has the benefit of star power, most notably from Dennis Quaid, James Franco and Zoe Kravitz. Altogether, the cast turn in fine performances, though Franco comes dangerously close to stumbling over into the type of smirking goon he played in Jason Statham’s Homefront. Despite the top billing going to his onscreen brother Jack Reynor, it’s actually newcomer Myles Truitt who is the real star of Kin. Truitt shines throughout the film, providing the troubled Elijah with a soulfulness that wins our admirations. While only shared briefly, his few scenes opposite Dennis Quaid (playing the rough but sincere type he plays maybe too often, but still does so well) carry emotional weight.
Aesthetically, Jonathan and Josh Baker provide an effectively discordant blend of CGI-laden, neon laser light show-esque futuristic sci-fi with the grimy underbelly of Detroit. This certainly isn’t groundbreaking vision by any means (Blade Runner and The Fifth Element are two films that instantly come to mind), but between the impressive effects, the eye-pleasing color palette, and Mogwai’s synth score, it’s still evident that the Baker brothers have a strong, clearly-defined sense of visual style that’s every bit as ambitious as their narrative foundation.
The Bad: The Bakers can hardly be faulted for lack of ambition here; however, their ambitions with this project is to a fault as Kin’s story is an absolute mess. Part dysfunctional family drama, part indie road trip and part sci-fi action, Kin, when all pieced together, is so disjointed and discombobulated it will have moviegoers’ heads spinning wildly out of control before being snapped clean off their necks from the whiplash brought on by all the wildly abrupt tonal shifts.
Basically, Kin is two films that are unable to come together and gel as one cohesive story. The main, driving storyline is the dysfunctional family drama shared by Jack Reynor, Myles Truitt and Dennis Quaid. The second is the one plastered all the posters and trailers, and that’s sci-fi elements involving the laser ray gun and space soldiers. The former carries the most potential in terms of story and character development, yet it’s the latter that most going to see this will expect to see given how heavily the studio has been marketing this as a sci-fi action flick.
However, neither story works. Save those few aforementioned handful of scenes between Truitt and Quaid, the family drama fails to make an impact due to the weak character development. The worst offender, Reynor’s Jimmy is an ex-con who’s an unapologetic prick that not only refuses to accept responsibility for his actions, but plays the victim card constantly, yet the films tries to portray him in a sympathetic light. It doesn’t help his case any that he’s always dragging his little brother into a number of dangerous situations that make you wanna reach through the screen and punch him square in the face. The sci-fi subplot fares worse. Don’t let the marketing fool you. The sci-fi angle’s importance is ranked on such a tertiary level it barely registers as a footnote.
Even more damning, the film lacks the sense of urgency needed to make this the thrilling experience it’s trying to be. There’s a serious void of tension throughout Eli and Jimmy’s road trip; in fact, the two take so many unnecessary detours – a strip club (featuring the best fully-clothed strippers a PG-13 rating can buy), casino, a stop on the side of the road to blow up some bales of hay with the laser gun – that it’s almost as if they completely forgot they’re being chased by a threatening space force and an armed drug dealer hell-bent on killing Jimmy.
It’s not until the end that the Bakers and Casey attempt to connect the dots, but the exposition provided by the space soldiers raises more questions than answers, and overall just comes off as a shameless promo for a sequel. If the studio’s tepid marketing push, the typical box office trends for late August releases and the poor performance by the similarly themed A.X.L are any indicators, that sequel may be highly unlikely.
As Jerry Seinfeld would say, “Well, good luck with all that.”
What’s most disappointing here is that in more skillful hands Kin could’ve been a pretty good sci-fi thriller. In terms of style, tone, and story, we’ve seen this film done before, and to better effect, with Jeff Nichols’s Midnight Special starring Michael Shannon and Joel Edgerton. The difference is that Nichols brought a deft touch in balancing his film’s tones and genre elements, a balance that Kin is unfortunately lacking.
The Ugly: Aside from the greasy-ass mullet James Franco’s rocking like a methed-out cockatoo, there’s a point close to the third-act of Kin where I swear I could hear the horrified screams of every member of the Nevada Police Force that was seeing this film and witnessing the abhorrently inept portrayal of their own.
Am I expecting them to be John McClain? Absolutely not, but when they all get easily dispatched fish in a barrel style by what might as well be Detroit’s version of the Trailer Park Boys, then maybe it’s time to accept the sad fact that they’re not even Paul Blart. The day you start making fat, Segway-riding mall cops look like Robocop is the day you need to turn in your badge.
Consensus: Though it boasts impressive special effects and a standout performance by the young Myles Truitt, Kin struggles to balance its multiple plotlines and incongruent tones, resulting in a sci-fi action effort that, while ambitious, is muddled and unfocused.
Silver Screen Fanatic’s Verdict: I give Kin a C- (★★).
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