We Gotta Get Out of This Place

Love, betrayal and escape in rural Texas drive the pulpy small-town noir We Gotta Get Out of This Place, the promising feature debut of director brothers Simon and Zeke Hawkins. With best friend Bobby (White) and girlfriend Sue (Davis) heading to college in a few weeks’ time, reckless, swaggering teen BJ (Huffman) robs the safe of his boss (Pellegrino) to give the pair a lavish send-off vacation. After spending the money, BJ's sleazebag boss works out they're responsible, and forces them to commit an additional robbery to reclaim the cash, which actually belongs to an infamous gangster.

The Hawkins brothers derive captivating performances from their talented central trio, and the sense of place and complicated character interplay proves very engrossing. It is a shame, then, that the final stretch of this brisk thriller devolves into convoluted plot twistiness that doesn't cohere with what has come before, while Pellegrino becomes a cartoonish, wise-cracking ham who disrupts the film's otherwise consistent tone. [Josh Slater-Williams]