Old Henry (2021)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Henry McCarty	Tim Blake Nelson	½
Curry	Scott Haze
Wyatt	Gavin Lewis
Uncle Al	Trace Adkins
Ketchum	Stephen Dorff
Dugan	Richard Speight Jr.	-
Stilwell	Max Arciniega	-
Branigan	Brad Carter	-

Review

Utilizing an old-school genre build-up with a novel characterological twist, writer/director Potsy Ponciroli has made one of the most engrossing westerns in later years. Tim Blake Nelson follows up his happy-go-lucky gunslinger Buster Scruggs with a very much contrasting variant here: a world-weary, close-mouthed pessimist who just wants to forget about his past and raise his now teenage son on his small, remote farm in Oklahoma in 1906. Everything changes when Henry finds a half-dead gunman with a satchel full of cash on the outskirts of his property, and the past slowly comes sweeping back into their lives. Ponciroli demonstrates a fine command of the medium with his steadfast pacing and well-versed utilization of western tropes. And when Nelson's unlikely, old-fashioned machismo eventually comes to the forefront, it feels more justified and satisfying than you'd expect, which can only be attributed to the film's solid craftsmanship and clever basic premise. Stephen Dorff is a delight as the antagonist Ketchum.