The Newton Boys
Director Richard Linklater, the king of the whiny but witty "hanging out" movie
(Dazed and Confused, suburbia), at last introduces a Gen X ensemble with
ambition to burn. As it happens, The Newton Boys is his weakest film
yet.
Far from Linklater's usual turf of strip malls and tract housing, this
banjo-pickin' 1920s Western resurrects the true story of America's most
successful bank robbers, the Newton Boys (Matthew McConaughey, Vincent
D'Onofrio, Ethan Hawke, and Skeet Ulrich). As the brains behind this
chisel-cheeked posse, McConaughey delivers a truly oily performance. In fact
he's too slippery: even in the most mawkish fraternal moment, he sounds
suspiciously glib.
Still, Linklater tips his 10-gallon hat to the genre with style, reveling in
velvet-painting vistas, hoky opening credits, and near-sensual close-ups of the
brothers' secret weapon, nitroglycerine. But for all its yee-haw antics and
good-ol'-boy banter, this latest portrait of youth on the fringe is no Butch
Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. It's more like The Dukes of Hazzard.