Movie Review: Those Who Wish Me Dead

Taylor Sheridan set such a high bar for himself as a writer and director with his initial run of projects (Sicario, Hell or High Water, Wind River) that it was seemingly only a matter of time before he failed to clear it. That fateful day where Sheridan fell short of top-tier excellence has finally come with the release of his third directorial effort Those Who Wish Me Dead. Although not quite as sharply written or unrelentingly tense as his prior movies, this survival thriller isn't even close to being a lackluster affair.

Those familiar with Sheridan's work will likely get many of the same pleasures out of Those Who Wish Me Dead that they did with his past projects, just on somewhat of a lesser scale. This story of a veteran firefighter (Angelina Jolie) assigned to a desolate lookout tower in a Montana forest that stumbles upon a panicked teenage boy (Finn Little) who is being pursued by a pair of assassins (Aiden Gillian, Nicolas Hoult) that just killed his forensic accountant father (Jake Weber)-who had incriminating information on a powerful mob boss (Tyler Perry) and other people of status in his possession-is another rich playground for Sheridan's gritty contemporary Western aesthetic to thrive on. The cat-and-mouse-style narrative paired with the reliably tight pacing and taut direction leads to some really thrilling setpieces-particularly when the danger level escalates with the presence of a raging forest fire in the film's final third and while there's a bit too much mystery to most of the characters save for Jolie's PTSD-suffering heroine, the assured performances allow each grizzled hero and intimidating villain archetype to ring true. Sheridan has done more than enough exemplary work to not get dumped on when he makes a movies that's well-crafted and very entertaining, but not incredible and if Those Who Wish Me Dead proves to be one of the less effective uses of his visceral, streamlined approach to filmmaking, his status among the elite creators in the industry will never fade away.          

Grade: B+