Movies…with a little bit of obscure culture and sports mixed in
“Based on true events in the early 1900s Wild West, Willie Boy falls in love with Carlota from the Chemehuevi tribe despite being forbidden to be together. A fatal incident […]
“Based on true events in the early 1900s Wild West, Willie Boy falls in love with Carlota from the Chemehuevi tribe despite being forbidden to be together. A fatal incident forces the young couple to flee the only place they know as home.”
Director: Christian Camargo
Writers: Jason Momoa, Thomas Pa’a Sibbett
Staring: Martin Sensmeier, Mainei Kinimaka, Zahn McClarnon, Lily Gladstone, Wade Williams, Jamie Sives, Jason Mamoa
Release Date: November 18, 2022
IMDB
The Last Manhunt (2022) is not a good movie. But more despairingly, The Last Manhunt is very boring. It is a form of a sleeping pill. The Last Manhunt is what you put on the television set of a coach bus at 2 AM when all of the travelers are asleep except for the high school couple in the back row.
So with that being said, what the hell is the movie about?
Based of a true story, The Last Manhunt is a tragic love story that pins a young couple against its own family, its own society, and its own stereotypes. Willie Boy (Martin Sensmeier) and Carlota (Mainei Kinimaka) fall for one another despite being forbidden. A tale as old as time. Turns out that Willie Boy and Carlota are from the same family, distantly. Carlota’s father is the leader of the tribe and he is doing everything in his power to have these two younglings not run off with one another.
During an evening rendezvous, Carlota’s father William Johnson (Zahn McClarnon) interrupts their kindling desire, and pays with his life. It is an accident, but Willie Boy kills William. This results in Carolotta and Willie running away, leading to a manhunt…that this movie would describe as the last one ever.
There are three different factions on this manhunt for Carlota and Willie. Among the posse of individuals chasing after the couple are two local native American trackers, a newspaper camera man/reporter, and a herd of gun-happy cowboys. The Native Americans want revenge for their fallen tribal leader and they do not plan on taking Willie Boy in alive. The servants of the sheriff want to follow the laws of justice and bring him in, using it all as a ploy to stoke fear in the community about these Native Americans. The cameraman is the servant of the fear, the vessel through which this story is told in the papers, depending on what parts he chooses to tell.
The hot Mohave desert atmosphere brings all of these figures, including Willie and Carlota, of the time together and balances out their respective priorities. Come the end of The Last Manhunt, there is not happy ending for any of the parties. There is a jaded lesson to be learned by all, and some are more accepting of this fact than others. It has heartbreak, frustration, annoyance and perseverance all built in.
There is a foundation for a quality movie within The Last Manhunt, but none of its bare-bone interesting parts amount to anything interesting.
This movie has no sense of propulsion. The scene setting in the beginning with Carlota and Willie’s relationship is spring on the viewer with little fervor or passion, and then for the remainder of the time you are supposed to buy that this guy, who accidentally killed her dad, is worth feeling sorry for. You are supposed to feel sympathy for this man? What about Carlota…she didn’t even fucking flinch when her dad died. It is crazy! No emotion. With the utmost respect to both Martin Sensmeier and Mainei Kinimaka, their acting in The Last Manhunt may mean they are hunting for jobs in the near future. Zero passion, zero chemistry and zero connection to one another or the audience.
So the two leads are bad, what about the rest of the cast? The best most impressive thing is that The Last Manhunt has two of its actors are appearing in Martin Scorcese’s Killers Of The Flower Moon (2023). Lily Gladstone, who plays Maria (rather unimportant in the story) is the lead for Scorcese alongside Leonardo DiCaprio. What a massive step-up. Good lord. Very happy for her. Going Gladstone on Killers Of The Flower Moon is Tantoo Cardinal, playing the part of Lizzie Q. She played Ticup in The Last Manhunt.
Among the cast for this mistaken western drama is Jason Mamoa. Though with that being said, he is barely a blip on the radar. He appears in very few scenes, but his impact is all over the film because he is the screenwriter. He is the pen that wrote down on the paper all of the rather milk-toast lines and lessons this movie teaches. Mamoa is stretching his talents and one can not fault him for that. I have not seen his other writing projects, but all seem to have a motif of searching for a home, or defending one. He has an upcoming project called Chief Of War that is telling the story of the Hawaiian Islands unifying to save themselves for colonization.
You ever wonder why the phrase, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” became such a thing? It is so much easier to talk bad about something than to talk good about anything. Am I alone in this? It is easier to have more succinct thoughts about the things that don’t work. I have plenty of other reactions to write about movies I enjoyed, but I just finished The Last Manhunt on Monday and all I wanted to do was dispense my disdain and disappointment.
It is a weird feeling. One that doesn’t make a ton of sense. Perhaps this is a bit of me diagnosing myself. Thanks for putting up with that.
If you want to take a nap on the couch or train, The Last Manhunt is streaming on Showtime.
STANKO RATING: D-
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