Carolina Caroline
Samara Weaving and Kyler Gallner play the Bonnie & Clyde of the ninties in the latest from director Adam Carter Rehmeier.
If you are familiar with any of Adam Carter Rehmeier’s past work, be it “Snack Shack” or “Dinner in America,” you know he has a knack for telling quirky, often darkly funny flicks set in middle America. Which is part of what makes “Carolina Caroline” so surprising. This isn’t a comedy, far from it. It’s Rehmeier’s darkest and most mature movie to date.
The film follows Caroline (Samara Weaving), a young woman who lives in a small town in Texas, raised by her single father (Jon Gries). While working her job at the local gas station, she meets and falls in love with Oliver (Kyle Gallner), a con artist. Caroline is eager for Oliver to teach her the tricks of his trade, thinking that she may have found a new way of life.
The two end up leaving Texas on a road trip across the Deep South, on their way to South Carolina. Oliver initially teaches Caroline how to swindle and hustle folks, but soon their crimes begin to escalate into robbing banks, and their crimes begin to take a much more violent turn.
Weaving and Gallner are electric together, both giving the best performances of their careers. Rehmeier doesn’t paint this ‘90s Bonnie & Clyde as flat-out evil nor noble Robin Hoods. They are rich, complex characters. Even as the robberies escalate, you are still always drawn to them. The film weaponizes Weaving and Gallner’s charisma, often turning it against the viewer. Gries and Kyra Sedgwick also turn in terrific work in their supporting roles. Gries’ role in particular serves as the beating heart of Carolina’s humanity, while Sedgwick’s one scene serves as a real turning point for the narrative.
Rehmeier has a way of balancing tonal shifts, and “Carolina Caroline” rides a thin line between bleak & tense and romantic & charming. The story is fairly conventional, especially for those who are fans of the southern crime thriller, but it culminates in a heartbreaking finale that still hits the right emotions.
“Carolina Caroline” is further proof that Rehmeier is one of the most compelling indie filmmakers out there. He takes a simple concept and elevates it into one of the most compelling and impactful movies of the year.