Hick

Hick is a very bad movie, but I take no delight in saying so. Unlike a cynical cash grab, like Scary Movie 5, for example, Hick is the kind of indie film that attracted quite a few stars and, judging by the interviews in the "making of" featurette, they really believed in the project.

But Hick, directed by Derick Martini from a script by Andrea Portes, who wrote the source novel, is another of those white-trash wallows that attempts to say profound things but just falls flat, with the actors trying on mush-mouth drawls (if any DVD needed subtitles, this one did, because I missed a lot of key dialogue).

Chloe Grace Moretz is Luli, who has her thirteenth birthday party in a bar, and gets a .45 as a present. Her mother is a lush (Juliette Lewis), who is keeping time with a stumblebum (Anson Mount). After seeing a commercial for Las Vegas, she decides she's going to go, after making a pro/con checklist that includes "sugar daddy opportunities" under pro, and "might die" under con. That's the only amusing thing I found in the film.

She first gets pick up by Eddie Redmayne, a cowboy with a bad leg. He tells her she's dressed like a hooker, she calls him a gimp, so she ditches his truck. Later she's picked up by Blake Lively, and wouldn't you know it, she and Redmayne not only know each other, they are intimate and have a child together. I really hate coincidences like this.

Moretz will end up being passed around and meeting bizarre caricatures, such a guy played by Ray MacKinnon, for whom Redmayne works as a man servant. MacKinnon has a conniption when Redmayne uses Squirt instead of 7-Up. Later, Moretz will wander into a bar, ruining Redmayne's attempt to hustle pool, and almost get raped. It's all grotesque, without having any meaning.

At the end of the movie, Alec Baldwin shows up, kind of playing Alec Baldwin, as he appears in those Capitol One commercials. He helps Moretz out, but I was grateful because his diction could be clearly understood.

This was kind of a showcase for Moretz, who's one of the more prominent child actresses today. She doesn't really acquit herself in this film, but I would chalk that up to Martini, who seems to have no hold on the action and just lets it wander along.