Steve Pulaski
Richard Linklater, as a writer and director, loves to let his characters breathe while on screen and confine them to a day's worth of events. However, with The Newton Boys, he attempts to infuse his laidback style with a true crime caper, concerning the Newton Gang, a group of four brothers who robbed banks in the United States during Prohibition. He conducts the film in an episodic manner, devoting over two hours to these brothers, their robberies, and their schemes by simply allowing their conversations to prevail and the charm of the actors to carry the film.The ringleader of the gang is Willis Newton, played by Matthew McConaughey, a suave, smooth-talker who maps out these heists. His brothers are the amiable ladies man Jess (Ethan Hawke), the lovable softy Dock (Vincent D'Onofrio), and the youngest and wiliest Joe (Skeet Ulrich). In addition, the brothers seek the help of Brentwood Glasscock (country singer Dwight Yoakam) to help blow the safes of banks with ample amounts of nitroglycerine. The Newton's work under a simple code of conduct, which states they won't kill, they won't harm or rob any women or children, and they won't snitch.Immediately, what The Newton Boys lacks is the element of perspective. Examining successful biopics of recent time, like Jersey Boys and The Wolf of Wall Street, both films benefited from the perspective of many of their individuals, particularly Jersey Boys, which showed how one story was told with bias from each of the band members. Despite spending two hours with these brothers, we feel like we're hanging out with them more than we're being told their story or learning of the men themselves. The brothers never transcend past caricatures, and Linklater's energy level and interest in these characters seems greatly diminished, especially considering his last several films.The irony with Linklater and The Newton Boys is here's a film about bank robbers running from the law, and it manages to be less interesting than Linklater's formal directorial debut Slacker, which focused for no more than five minutes on a single character and Before Sunrise, which simply featured two characters walking and talking. Linklater's investment in his characters is noted with every film I've seen from him, but here, it's as if he's within arm's length of his characters at all times, never gravitating towards them to learn about them, despite the glacial-pace of the film. The conversations between the men reiterate tired ideas describing how robbing the banks isn't a bad thing because they're essentially stealing from insurance companies, so clearly, stealing isn't so bad. These conversations undermine the titular characters, and the coffin-sealing nail is no perspective is ever provided on these men to show how we're supposed to view them.So The Newton Boys drags on without much energy, like someone who worked a forty-five hour week and begrudgingly took on a twelve hour shift to follow it up. As it meanders and rifts around, it manages to drain the energy out of us, the audience, as well, and we're left with a film that's lifeless and impotent, two traits I never thought I'd associate with Linklater. All the pieces are here aesthetically, with the costumes, the music, and the aura of the Roaring 20's all captured with visual flair, and the four young leading men prove they have charisma, but at the end of the day, that's all they have, and a film about bank robbers needs more than that.Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Ethan Hawke, Skeet Ulrich, Vincent D'Onofrio, and Dwight Yoakam. Directed by: Richard Linklater.
Michael O'Keefe
History is history and Hollywood is well...Hollywood. This is a fact-based drama that chronicles the exploits of the bank robbing Newton brothers(Matthew McConaughey, Vincent D'Onofrio, Ethan Hawke and Skeet Ulrich)who robbed over eight banks from Texas to Toronto in the 20's and 30's. Along with them a friend(Dwight Yoakam)who knew his way with nitro.This makes for exciting explosions on screen with clouds of money to go with gunshot blasts and whining getaway cars. The prolonged career in crime is capped off with a three million dollar mail train heist outside Chicago. This finally landed the boys in a court room and behind bars. By all means don't walk out on the closing credits for you get to find out what happened to each of the principle players. Also in the cast are: Julianna Margulies, Charles Gunning, Chloe Webb and Casey McAuliffe. There is the claim that the Newton boys never killed a soul during their robbing the bigger thieves...the banks.
elainew32
In a way, it seems like a waste to gather Matthew McConaughey, Ethan Hawke, Skeet Ulrich, and Vincent D'Onofrio for this movie, because they should've been able to do something great, although, if it weren't for them, it would have been boring. It is a straightforward assembly of the facts of the incredible run of 80 bank robberies by the Newton brothers. Then they go for the big one, a train robbery of Federal Reserve funds. It is entertaining, but I was most entertained during the running of the credits. Over to the left, they show clips of Joe Newton at about age 79, on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, interspersed with film clips of an interview with Willis Newton in his 80's, both giving their views of what it was like and how they felt about what they had done. After seeing Hollywood's version of their lives, it was interesting to see what they were like in old age.
jmorrison-2
This movie was much better than I expected. Interesting true story told of a band of unusual bank robbers. Almost gentlemen bandits, if you will. McConnaughey, Ulrich, Hawke, and D'Onofrio do a great job with the brother's characters. The end credits are definitely worth watching this for.
