Geekscape Movie Reviews: ‘Kin’
This Friday night I rented Kin – get ready for a dark, serious, science fiction film that misfires!
Directors: Jonathan and Josh Baker
Starring: Myles Truitt, Jack Reynor, Zoë Kravitz, and James Franco
Appearances by: Dennis Quaid, Carrie Coon, and Michael B. Jordan
Theater Release Date: August 31, 2018
Runtime: 1 hour 42 minutes
Rated: PG-13
Character Rundown
Myles Truitt plays Elijah Solinski, a young, adopted kid living in Detroit, and is our main protagonist.
Jack Reynor plays Jimmy Solinski, Eli’s brother who gets out of jail and plays our ever popular antihero.
Dennis Quaid plays Hal Solinski, a tough love blue-collar father and is a widower.
Zoë Kravitz plays Milly, a stripper that runs off with Elijah and Jimmy on their adventure.
James Franco plays Taylor Balik and is our main antagonist, a crime lord that supplies protection in prison.
Carrie Coon plays Morgan Hunter, an FBI agent that gets involved in a firefight at a police station.
Michael B. Jordan plays a “Cleaner.”
Quick Story Breakdown
While scrapping copper one day to sell, Eli finds a pair of futurist soldiers dead from a battle. Eli takes one of the soldier’s guns and brings it home. Jimmy, Eli’s brother, gets out of jail and needs a place to crash while he gets on his feet. Hal, Jimmy and Eli’s father, doesn’t get along with Jimmy. Hal warns Eli to watch himself around Jimmy after Eli gets kicked out of school for fighting.
While Jimmy was in prison, he needed protection and asked Taylor Balik, a local crime lord, to keep him alive while behind bars. Now, Jimmy owes $60,000 to the Balik brothers. Hal catches Jimmy and the Balik brothers trying to steal the cash out of Hal’s work safe. The robbery goes wrong, Jimmy grabs the money and runs off with Eli in Hal’s truck which leads to Taylor Balik chasing him the rest of the movie until the finale, a firefight in a police station.
Pros
The poster is badass! I’m an old video store kid, which means most of my movies are picked from the marketing. This film nailed the eye candy.
The gun that Eli finds is a dope weapon and does some severe damage. A fresh story point is that only Eli can use the gun, and its three destructive settings. Truthfully, the soldiers or cleaners look altogether is fun.
Speaking of Eli, Myles Truitt does an excellent job of secondary action. He delivers his lines well but always goes further to deepen his character with these thoughts behind his eyes and facial gestures. I hope to see Myles Truitt more in the future.
James Franco’s portrayal of the nasty and strange Taylor Balik is lovely to watch. I was more a fan of Taylor than Jimmy, which leads me into my cons.
Cons
Jimmy is a very unlikeable character. I’m not knocking Jack Reynor’s acting, he’s doing a solid job. Jimmy, on the other hand, keeps putting his brother Eli in terrible situations. The story tries to force you to like Eli and Jimmy with some brotherly mischief on this crazy road trip/chase. It’s not working, and you will find yourself cheering for Jimmy to leave Eli out of his stupid plan.
Zoë Kravitz and Carrie Coon are wasted in their roles. Kravitz plays a stripper that takes a liking to Jimmy and Eli, but I can’t tell why. Coon’s FBI agent does next to nothing. I’m wondering if her role was cut down for time.
Final Thoughts
I had a lot of hope Kin (2018) would be a quiet gem ever since I saw the trailer and the short film “Bag Man” from 2014 that Jonathan and Josh Baker did, which lead to this movie. Sadly, Kin is an action sci-fi that misses the mark and seems to be a prequel to a much better film. I know this is the Baker brothers debut film and I think there is enough here to build on. Hopefully, they get another shot and Hollywood doesn’t bury them for one failure.
Final Grade: C-
Thanks for reading, and check out our podcast Analog Jones and the Temple of Film. We are a VHS Podcast that breaks down the box art, trailers and behind the scenes.
– Stephen M. Bay
