Written and directed by John Swab
Starring Josh Hartnett, Frank Grillo, Melissa Leo, and Sofia Hublitz
Runtime: 1 hour and 51 minutes
In theaters and digital November 5th

by Whitley Albury, Staff Writer

A lot of things from the 70s are coming back into style: fashion, hair, and, in this case, heist films.

Ida Red is, at its core, a story about family, and the lengths we go to for the people we love. Wyatt Walker (Josh Hartnett) is a car salesman by day, criminal by night. The film opens on Wyatt and his uncle Dallas (Frank Grillo in all of his unhinged glory) posing as police officers and holding up a pharmaceutical truck. And, like all good heist films, things go awry. We cut to Wyatt visiting his terminally ill mother, Ida (Melissa Leo), in prison, where she’s carrying out a life sentence for a previous heist gone wrong. Turns out, she’s been continuing to pull the strings for crimes, even from behind bars, by giving Wyatt encoded messages.

Meeting the rest of the family, it’s a lot more complicated. Yes, there’s uncle Dallas; there’s Wyatt’s sister, Jeanie (Deborah Ann Woll), who stays as far away from the “family business” as possible; her husband, Bodie, (Slaine), a cop (yes, I did indeed get some of those Breaking Bad vibes); and her teenage daughter, Darla (Sofia Hublitz). I would argue that, even though the majority of the movie focuses on Wyatt and Dallas, Darla is the actual protagonist of the film. She’s the one who we see kind of grow up and make discoveries about her family and herself. She’s the one who truly takes an emotional journey, while the rest are pretty settled in their roles.

I think one of the things that stood out the most to me was pacing. In some ways, I wish we spent more time in some scenes, with some characters, to build more of an emotional bond with them. But in other scenes, it felt much slower than it needed to be. I did, however, truly love the 70s-style transitions and b-roll footage. The other somewhat jostling bit was how empty a lot of the shots were. True, the film was shot in Tulsa in the summer of 2020, so, understandable as to why the streets and buildings were empty. It just lends more to the uneasy feeling.

Overall, I feel like the film is a solid homage to films like The French Connection. It’s one of those movies where you don’t immediately dislike it, but I don’t think it’s one that would be anyone’s favorite film, either. If you’re looking for something to watch on a Saturday afternoon with a plate of nachos, this works!