FilmSnobReviews

Title: Braven
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Lin Oeding
Starring: Jason Momoa, Garret Dillahunt, Stephen Lang
Runtime: 1 hr 34 mins

What It Is: Joe Braven (Momoa) lives a quiet life in the snowiest parts of Canada. His quaint existence with his wife Stephanie (Jill Wagner) daughter Hallett (Zahn McClarnon) and his father Linden (Lang) receives a disruption when a friend of his hides drugs in his cabin in the woods. When Kassen (Dillahunt) goes to pick up the drugs, which are his, he finds Joe and Linden there. Kassen isn’t a man to negotiate his way around things. Now we have a situation, one Kassen may have grossly underestimated.

What We Think: A bit a surprise this one. I went in expecting a standard run of the mill action flick what was delivered was something else. Featuring a breakout performance from the typically strong Jason Momoa. Throughout the film, there’s a sense, created by Momoa’s earnest performance, of dread. You want Braven to take these bad dudes off of his land. Garret Dillahunt is pretty menacing indeed. His lines weren’t all that interesting, though. Additionally, he’s very not given much to work with but the simple instruction of “be an a-hole” which he does…rather well.

Our Grade: B-, This was a pleasant surprise for me, as I mentioned. I would recommend this film, 100%. Not only is it of a surprisingly high quality but there’s a ton to like about it overall. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel but it doesn’t try to. Momoa is a good lead for something like this and I think overall you’ll find this a worthy little surprise of a film. Really cool to see Stephen Lang make another appearance. I love watching this guy in films. He was thrilling in Don’t Breath and he’s once again equally grumpy and fantastic here.