Those that hesitate to get their driver’s license as a result of they view automobiles as a weapon first and a mode of transportation second will really feel validated by Shawn Simmons’ Eenie Meanie. Simmons’ high-octane movie focuses on a former getaway driver named Edie (Samara Weaving), who’s pulled again onto a highway of crime she thought she had exited. Simmons understands the inherent pleasure of seeing a automotive as an instrument of chaos, placing automobiles in locations the place they shouldn’t be (the lawns of high-rise buildings, the halls of a on line casino) and watching his characters react to this obstruction in actual time. Eenie Meanie operates greatest when it embraces the mayhem of its vehicular set items, however tonal whiplash and hole characterization off-road the movie too many occasions for it to get totally again on observe.
Eenie Meanie
3
/5
- Launch Date
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August 22, 2025
- Director
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Shawn Simmons
- Writers
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Shawn Simmons
Once we meet Edie, she’s attempting to remain on the straight and slender. We first get a way that there’s extra to her than her brilliant smile and chipper spirit when she and her co-workers are held at gunpoint on the financial institution the place she works; she complies with the robbers however maintains a steely resolve, eying a distracted assailant’s handgun. Earlier than Edie can seize the weapon, nevertheless, she’s knocked out. When she wakes up within the hospital, she’s instructed she hasn’t suffered any lasting accidents, however her analysis comes with a brand new revelation: she’s pregnant.
Deducing that the daddy is her ex, John (Karl Glusman), she goes to inform him the information. Moving into his condominium, she fights again in opposition to shock attackers despatched by Nico (Andy Garcia), a mobster for whom Edie and John used to work. The perennially clumsy and careless John owes Nico a debt of $3 million, to be paid expediently lest John needs to have his skeleton “pulled by his pores and skin by a Haitian man who does it for affordable,” (Garcia makes probably the most out of his minor function, delivering tough-guy dialogue with sardonic glee.) Edie reluctantly agrees to assist John, and the duo are recruited to steal a Dodge Charger Scat Pack from a on line casino that’s crammed with $3 million.
Simmons appears acutely conscious that his forged is attractive, his set items are riotous, and his path is propulsive. And that confidence is what makes Eenie Meanie so cinematic. It’s invigorating to see a streaming film stroll with the swagger of a theatrical one, and the movie’s standout set piece, through which Edie and her crew handle to steal the show Dodge, has a cantankerousness that solely comes from sensible results. Eenie Meanie is propelled by its escalating audaciousness: As Edie races by the halls, attempting to wrangle the Dodge as if it’s a rabid beast, you’ll be able to’t assist however give up to the anarchy because the on line casino devolves right into a flurry of flying hubcaps, shattered glass and dented slot machines. DP Tim Ives takes additional care to showcase Weaving and Marshawn Lynch (who performs rival driver Perm Walters) within the driver’s seat throughout the motion set items, as if to erase any doubt that these actors weren’t doing their very own driving stunts.
If the movie had been a sizzle reel of electrifying antics, that might be sufficient. However alas, a film is greater than its most kinetic motion beats. Simmons’ extra somber narrative at all times appears in stress with the spectacle he needs to ship, and this comes all the way down to characterization. In a scene instantly earlier than Edie steals the automotive, she breaks her burner cellphone and throws it right into a vacant pitcher of beer whereas Bobby Krlic’s epic rock ‘n’ roll rating blasts round her. It’s an undeniably badass second, however on condition that we simply watched a scene the place the characters stress the significance of being discreet, the second makes Edie appear incompetent somewhat than cool. That’s to not say a number of tones can’t coexist, however Simmons by no means finds a method to make the thrilling work with the compelling. It’s a disgrace, too, as a result of there’s rather a lot underneath Eenie Meanie’s hood thematically, specifically the ways in which the individuals who declare to like us are those able to inflicting probably the most emotional harm.
Edie wrestles with whether or not she actually loves John or is solely working right into a relationship that feels snug, questioning what she owes to him in her means of development and transformation. Weaving has an expressive face, which has been her best power in every little thing from rom-coms to post-apocalyptic thrillers. Her characters put on their convictions and confidence plainly, and Edie is not any exception. In the meantime, Glusman performs John as well-meaning however myopic, unaware of the ripple results of his rash actions. John is unchanging and cussed, however nonetheless worthy of viewers’ sympathy; he acts as a compelling foil for Weaving’s Edie, who questions whether or not her dream of a greater life can embrace somebody like him.
This movie may have both been a gritty, character-driven story or a pulpy, ostentatious blockbuster, and Eenie Meanie sputters when it tries to have it each methods. Most of the time, it straddles the center lane, which makes it nothing greater than a diverting summer season deal with. You received’t miss a lot for those who preserve driving, however it’s good to pause at a relaxation cease now and again.
Eenie Meanie premieres August twenty second on Hulu.