lucky movie review 2021

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Lucky review – home-invasion horror that's a stand against violence, on repeat

Brea Grant is menaced by a masked intruder, night after night, in a time-loop thriller that makes a vehement statement about society’s attitude to women

T his clever thriller teeters on the brink of abstraction, and walks a razor wire between horror and an incredulous absurdity meant to stand for how women must live in the modern world: the daily toll of living in fear of aggression, physical assault and withstanding the misogynistic structures that excuse them.

At 2.29am one night, writer May (Brea Grant) peers over her balustrade to see an interloper, features blurred by a gel mask, staring up at her from the backyard. When she retreats to bed to tell husband Ted, he is disturbingly blase: “Honey, that’s the man. The man that comes every night and tries to kill us.” Ted manages to off the housebreaker with a pool cue, but his body disappears within seconds. The next night, and the next, May must do it all over again.

As this Groundhog Day home invasion unspools, other characters display the same weird acceptance as Ted. More than the physical threat, it’s as if a new unfathomable reality is creeping in and violating her own. The police response is half-hearted and, adding to the conspiratorial air, Ted packs his bags after an argument: “I can’t change this. This is just how things are.” After these microaggressions, the next macro one is incoming; you might expect an It Follows -style air of inexorable dread to set in, but May remains upbeat. Grant also wrote the script as well as starring, and perhaps it’s this closeness to the core ideas that allows her to pivot spryly between romcom perkiness and a nauseated hesitancy that suggests the dislocation between normal life and its violent substrate.

Towards the end, there’s a suggestion that May’s public tough-it-out credo – she is plugging a self-help book called Go It Alone – may be, in some sense, perpetuating these attacks. Possibly this is acknowledging that the strong-woman ideal championed by some quarters of the #MeToo movement comes at the expense of a more realistic and collaborative feminism. Natasha Kermani’s film is an elliptical but vehement statement on the post-#MeToo landscape. If the film’s story development is stymied by the narrative’s ultimate stasis, it is to all the better point out that the fight is far from finished.

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‘Lucky’ review: time-loop horror replays trauma of domestic violence

'Heroes' star Brea Grant leads this home invasion thriller that speaks to the female experience

T he horror movie industry has long thrived on blokes in masks carrying out unrelenting and unprovoked attacks on women, be they co-eds in cabins, individuals in their own homes or sisters in sororities.

In some ways, Lucky – written by its star Brea Grant, best known for her role in mid-2000s event TV show Heroes , and directed by relative newcomer Natasha Kermani – is no different. We meet Brea’s protagonist May, a self-help author whose own life goes off the rails when a masked assailant returns to her house night after night. And night after night, it falls on May to fend off her attacker and watch, in bafflement, as his body magically disappears and her recollection of the events are disputed.

Colleagues, relatives and the police appear willing to offer help, but somehow, no one is ever on hand when the attacker strikes, leaving it to May to wedge a claw hammer in his skull, or a kitchen knife between his ribs. May, we learn, is apparently stuck in a modishly popular time loop story (see also: Happy Death Day 2U , Palm Springs ).

The film has the viewer searching for answers throughout – why does the attacker look a bit like May’s absent boyfriend? Why does she give him the opportunity to escape? Why does she clean up evidence? Presented, as it is, on horror network Shudder , our expectations are for a supernatural explanation, but none is forthcoming.

Actually, we come to realise, the film is a metaphor for domestic abuse in its repetitive, complicit, gaslit, isolating everyday horror. When the pieces fall into place, the narrative begins to make sense, from the unremarkable anonymity of the attacker’s masked appearance to his attack method – turning May’s own weapons on her – and the way May fastidiously removes every last drop of blood after carrying out her terrible, burdensome duties.

Recommended

May’s central character is compelling, not overtly a great part of the ‘sisterhood’, not necessarily a sympathetic character, not falling into any of the regular horror movie moulds except, it seems, the unravelling female mind. The cues we get as to the reality of her experience naturally you question her sanity, which means you just failed the test.

It’s a fair question to ask why anyone might want to endure this experience in the name of home entertainment. Lucky is difficult to watch: frustrating, boring, guarded, reluctant to explain, exhausting even. Why would anyone want to live that disorienting experience? They wouldn’t. So the answer might instead be: that’s the point.

• Director: Natasha Kermani
• Starring: Brea Grant, Kausar Mohammed, Dhruv Uday Singh
• Release date: March 4 ( Shudder )
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'Lucky' Review: A Tense, Suffocating Movie That Comments On The Real Life Horror Of Living With Men

Lucky, directed by Natasha Kermani and written by Brea Grant, follows May (Brea Grant) who is a business consultant/expert who one day finds out that her house is under attack by a masked man whose only goal is to kill her. But the first of many twists is that the killer vanishes every time he is killed and restarts the process all over again. While the allegory about the toxic atmosphere that men have created is apparent, it’s the dedication towards tension, action, and visceral nature of May’s reality that truly cements the movie as a brilliant addition to the ever-expanding horror genre.

I am a horror fan and you’ll rarely find me bashing a horror movie unless they’ve really f*cked up. I know that someone who has made a horror movie really loves the genre and has a genuine interest in pushing its horizons. It’s very often that it is used as a means to gain some quick money because it’s a monster of a thing to handle. You can’t just wake up one day and decide you’re going to make a horror movie. I mean, you can, but it’s going to be shit. Hence, I always try to look for the ideas and the influences that the filmmakers have utilised to accentuate whatever’s happening on-screen. During that process when I come across some ingenious use of narrative and visual techniques, I simply get giddy. And yes, Lucky did make me feel like that.

Lucky is directed by Natasha Kermani and written by Brea Grant. The music is by Jeremy Zuckerman, cinematography by Julia Swain, editing by Chris Willett, production design by Lindsay Minnich, costume design by Brianna Quick, makeup and hair by Amber Bailey, sound design by Roman Chimienti, sound mixing by Jay Pellezzi, music supervision by Michelle Visilj, special effects makeup by Jeff Farley and Zane Reynolds, stunt coordination by Helena Barrett, and VFX by Post Mango. It features Brea Grant, Dhruv Uday Singh, Kausar Mohammed, Yasmine Al-Bustami, Hunter C. Smith, and more. The official synopsis for the movie states that life takes a sudden turn for May (Grant) when she finds herself the target of a mysterious man with murderous intentions. Every night he comes after her and nobody seems to notice. With no one to help May, she is pushed to her limits to bring the conflict to an end.

Lucky ’s allegories are apparent and its repetitive nature is necessary. But it could’ve benefitted from better dialogues.

I have talked a lot about how horror movies should put a lot emphasis on characters because that’s how the horrifying parts will become more palpable. I have cited The Exorcist as one of the biggest examples of this method of storytelling. However, there are rare instances where that isn’t necessary i.e. Lucky . You have everything you need to know about May, the person who you’ll be following throughout the movie, in the first few minutes itself and now you have the freedom to dissect the plots and the sub-plots. Yes, if you don’t have anything to offer after the initial shocking moment, then you can run into a major problem and end up relying on jump-scares to pad up the runtime. Now, the question is: does Lucky have that kind of meat? Actually, no, and still, it works.

Without giving away any spoilers, Lucky is about the toxic, suffocating environment that men have created just because they are insecure pieces of sh*t where gaslighting, violence, and heaven knows what have become normal instances of our life. And women have to endure that for no goddamn reason every single day even though it is 2021. Trigger warning. What’s rape and what’s not rape, what’s sexual abuse and what’s not sexual abuse, who should women marry and who should women not marry, are topics that are still being discussed here in India. Men can’t possibly understand how insanely exhausting it must feel to see a layer of oppression and regression that’s being put on them, sometimes even by women who have given into the patriarchal norms of society, every single waking moment. That’s why, in addition to reestablishing the themes, the repetitive storytelling helps sell that anxiety and claustrophobia.

Lucky is one rare movie that everyone should watch with their best earphones on to get the full audio-visual experience.

Yes, I said what I said. Movies should be enjoyed on the big screen blah, blah, blah. I know. But in order to talk about Lucky , I am going to disagree with that notion. Because the sound design in it is so subjective that you shouldn’t allow yourself to hear any sound other than that coming out of the movie. And you can’t have that when you’re watching it in a theatre, right? Your best sound systems aren’t going to cancel the sound of the people munching beside you or shifting in their seats. You are going to miss the nuances and there’s so much of that. For example, apart from the score, I think there’s a white noise-like sound to mimic May’s, and well every women’s, drowning feeling in this sea of men. It’s subtle and it adds to the overall viewing experience.

The other reason why Lucky absolutely slaps is because of its action choreography. I don’t think I have said this about any other horror movie ever. So, yes, the action of the movie is a very integral part of the narrative because May confronting the masked man is a physical process. We need to understand that while the man is generating, May remains the same, but with more injuries and scars (Props to the special effects and makeup department for continuity and realistic scarring) and that those punches, kicks, and body-slams are incredibly real and painful. Props to the stunt department for going all out in that aspect and to Natasha as well for not restricting to genre conventions and giving them full freedom to do almost anything they wanted to. The production design and cinematography are top-notch as well, especially with their use of colour, thereby proving horror movies don’t have to be grey and dull.

Brea Grant beautifully carries Lucky on her shoulders. Also, major props to the man in the translucent mask.

I know I am being Captain Obvious over here right now by saying that Brea has knocked it out of the park with her performance here but it’s true. This is right up there with Toni Collette in Hereditary , Elisabeth Moss in The Invisible Man , Lupita Nyong’o in Us , and Florence Pugh in Midsommar . Oh, you know what? Lucky and The Invisible Man will make for a brilliant double feature, in my honest opinion. Sorry for the tangential thought. Yes, Brea Grant is terrific and nails the complexity of her character. Because May is a woman who is also running the risk of conforming to gender norms, which is made apparent in the very beginning and at the end. And for a movie that’s calling out men, the message could’ve been lost in the process. However, Brea ensures that those scenes generate empathy instead of being some kind of “gotcha” moment.

I don’t think many will get it but the way Dhruv Uday Singh nails the “nice guy” trope is perfect. It’s a tricky thing to talk about but I’ll try. Nice guys tend to empathise with the plight of women without actually addressing any of the issues. They say that they are there for them without actually being there for them. They tend to understand the sensitive issues revolving around women but overreact when they are told that they are part of the problem. And they do all this without realising that they’re doing it. Or maybe they do and just feign their ignorance. Either way, it elicits a very prickly sense of irritation which Singh portrays impeccably through his vocal modulations and his physicality. Hunter C. Smith as the masked killer (Quite the ironic name, BTW) is great. He doesn’t have any dialogues and he has to exude a certain kind of arrogance synonymous with “alpha men”, which he does superbly. The rest of the supporting cast is excellent as well.

Final verdict.

Lucky is definitely worth a watch. Please don’t go by the IMDb ratings and whatnot. Watch it for yourself and I think you will like it. I liked it. That’s for sure. I don’t usually say this but men should especially watch this movie. Yes, I know it’s a movie about women made by women. But women have experienced and are still experiencing every single thing that has been shown here. So, watching it again will be merely a reaffirmation of what they know and can even be a little triggering. It’s the men who need to see how it feels for a woman to live in a man’s world, truly open their eyes, look in the mirror to see the kind of B-movie horror villain that they are, and hopefully stop creating this heinous atmosphere. Kyuki Imperial Blue kitni achi daaru kyu na ho aur woh kitni baar hi kyu na bole “men will be men”, it’s about time that men should stop being men.

SEE ALSO: Shook Review - A Social Media Influencer Is Haunted By A Dog Killing Stalker In This Tepid Horror Movie

Cover artwork by Bhavya Poonia/Mashable India

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REVIEW: Natasha Kermani’s ‘Lucky’ has something to say.

Posted by James Shotwell | Mar 1, 2021 | Featured , Film , Film Reviews , News , Reviews | 0 |

Blending home invasion horror with a blistering commentary on life in the modern age, Natasha Kermani’s Lucky is a film with something to say.

The latest twist on time loop narratives,  Lucky  offers an allegorical tale of home invasion, individualism, and feminism that is sure to start conversations. It doesn’t rise to the storytelling heights of similarly looping features, but it does find fresh ground amongst well-worn territory.

Mae (Brea Grant) is a self-help author whose latest book is failing to match its predecessors’ success. To make matters worse, she is also being stalked by a masked man wielding a large knife who appears every night and tries to murder her. Mae always kills the assailant, but his body disappears before anyone can see it.

Want more horror movie coverage? Check out critic James Shotwell’s review of The Vigil.

Unlike other films that feature a time loop scenario,  Lucky’s narrative does not revolve around a repeating day or single event. Mae’s life is always moving forward, but at some point, every day, the man with a knife appears and attempts to kill her. Time and location do not matter. It often happens at night, but he stalks her during the day as well. Mae turns to everyone she can think of for help, including her husband and the police, but nobody can help, and very few seem to believe her. 

Grant, one of the most prominent stars of indie genre film at the moment, carries the film with talent well beyond her years. Even as Mae begins to feel like she’s losing her grip on reality, Grant conveys the flurry of emotion within her character as something enormously complex, and in doing so, makes Mae feel real. She’s more than a one-note final girl; she’s a funny, scared, smart, and curious human that refuses to submit to the supernatural forces trying to break her spirit. 

Lucky runs a short 80-minutes in length, but once the story reveals its twist, one cannot help feeling as though they are watching a short film stretched to feature-length for no discernible reason. The movie is less about unraveling the mystery of the man and more about making a statement on the reality of life, specifically for women, in our world. It’s about the horror of being and how no matter how hard you fight or prepare, tomorrow will always bring a fresh terror. That conceit works, but it may work even better with more concise storytelling.

Viewers need to ask themselves what they seek in a thriller before choosing Lucky . While the film’s technical execution is on par with anything one might consider to be of high quality in horror right now, filmmaker Natasha Kermani seems to care more about delivering the message than entertaining. Lucky is, above all else, a commentary on existence that touches on deep philosophical questions through the lens of an uncomfortable truth that many people, mostly men, often find a way to ignore. What you do with the information it has to share is up to you. Kermani does not offer solutions or even hope, but she does make you think, and that is more than I can say for the vast majority of recent indie genre fare.

Review: Lucky

Summary Blending home invasion horror with a blistering commentary on life in the modern age, Natasha Kermani's Lucky is a film with something to say.

About The Author

James Shotwell

James Shotwell makes and markets music entertainment. Based in the midwest, his work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Alternative Press, and dozens of other outlets. He's responsible for creating @CountryMinute on Tiktok, the Music Biz channel on YouTube, the High Notes podcast, Under The Gun Review, and countless pieces of entertainment content across multiple digital entertainment properties.

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Lucky is a 2021 horror film that follows a suburban woman named May, who finds herself stalked by a threatening figure who returns to her house night after night. 

Lucky is trying to do a few things at once, taking advantage of horror tropes — that fans of the genre, as well as moviegoers with broader tastes — are by now very familiar. It plays off this familiarity to tell a meta-story — direct commentary on human existence, especially the unique challenges experienced by ambitious women. On paper, Lucky is walking in the footsteps of Get Out -style social horror. In practice, it's simply boring.

Tone: The film's primary problem is that it doesn't balance its horror with its commentary in an effective way. From its initial shocks, the film chooses to eschew normal human behavior to emphasize allegory, but you aren't clued into what's grounded, and what's not. I never understood why none of the characters treated these home invasions as seriously as they should; I could understand why no one was taking May seriously, but through their inaction, Lucky ceases to be compelling. It plays through the same cycle of violence that, if it wasn't scary the first time, it surely will not be the fourth or fifth time the crime is repeated. It's also repetitive in the sense that it never uses the promise of a new encounter to change things up, or reveal any new information. The result is a stale thriller whose message becomes pretty clear before its final reveal.

Theme: Lucky isn't void of meaning, but it's wanting of substance. It needed a deeper dive into what it's saying. In a bolder film, this final reveal would've been a tool of the first act. Additionally, May would've been able to plunge deeper into the film's feminist themes, allowing her to flip the script more satisfyingly. It doesn't help that nearly all the characters act the same. Aside from May, and maybe the film's antagonist, there aren't any actual characters in this film, only one-dimensional tools. Every ounce of enjoyment you may get out of Lucky will be directly tied to how closely you grow to like May. Unfortunately when a film is playing to both the real and the allegorical, I expect the lead character to be up to snuff, and I just never found her to be an interesting protagonist. This concept could have used another couple of passes: one to punch up the action and another to expand its themes, exploring them with purpose instead of obfuscating an entry-level understanding of modern gender politics behind yet another time loop. I would've liked to see Lucky get riled up throughout the duration — it feels too reserved for its own good.

Nothing makes sense when nobody questions the obvious, and you can't build suspense with a confused audience.

Watch Lucky Now

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Lucky – Shudder Review (4/5)

Posted by Karina "ScreamQueen" Adelgaard | Mar 1, 2021 | 4 minutes

LUCKY is a dark horror-comedy released on Shudder. Written by its star, Brea Grant, the plot is built on symbolism and mind games. It won’t be for everyone, even though the very current issue it tackles definitely should be. Read our full Lucky movie review here!

LUCKY is a dark horror-comedy released on Shudder which tells an important story by way of metaphors. In other words, keep an open mind and try not to take the actions literally. I realize it won’t be for everyone since we weren’t even in agreement here at Heaven of Horror.

One of us “just” liked it and one of us was even more into it – I’m the latter. Possibly because I’ve actually had nightmares similar to what the main protagonist (played wonderfully by the film’s writer, Brea Grant) lives through.

Even though the story features a stalker, you should think of this movie less as Single White Female realism and  much more like an episode of  Black Mirror . While watching this movie, it might be good to keep that in mind.

Continue reading our Lucky movie review below and find it on Shudder from March 4, 2021.

Brea Grant kicks a** yet again!

We’ve already reviewed quite a few movies starring Brea Grant. No matter how I felt about the movies, I  always  liked Brea Grant in them. If you like her in this, you should check out Beyond the Gates (2016) and  After Midnight  (2019) .

Personally, the most memorable scene for me deals with the title of the film. Our main protagonist, May (Brea Grant), is told by her literary agent that she is lucky that she got another book deal. He actually says this as a compliment, but May catches him off-guard when she states very plainly that she isn’t lucky, she worked damn hard to be where she is. She deserves the results of that work without being called lucky.

And that , ladies and gentlemen, is the point of this entire movie, which plays on rather perfectly as a slasher horror-comedy.

And there is plenty of slasher moments. A nightly intruder attacks May every single night. And every single night (after the first one), she is ready for him. She kills him every night – in various ways – and he just vanishes. Leaving her to clean up the bloody mess.

Hopefully, just by reading this description, you’re catching on to the metaphorical meaning of these events.

Being a woman in the world today

While we didn’t agree on how much we liked Lucky , we  did  agree on the fact that we related all-too-easily to the main point of this movie. And yes, it is one of feminism and trying to get by as a woman in the world as it is. If you take offense with stories dealing in this array, then don’t expect to care for or understand any  of what this movie is about.

Also, if you can’t relate to the metaphors and symbolism, then you’re probably one of two things; A man, or a woman who has actually been lucky (so far anyway).

Look, I’m not saying all men are terrible. Quite the opposite, I think most men are great. In fact, I know many men who are much better feminists than many women I know. The story in  Lucky focuses on the men, who go out of their way to tell women how they should act and behave.

You know, the kind who will gladly attack women every chance they get. They may be a smaller minority, but they make up for the majority when it comes to commenting on women. Often on social media or via backhanded comments, so they won’t have to actually deal directly with possible consequences. These microaggressions make up the background for this story.

Watch Lucky  (2020) on Shudder

Natasha Kermani is the director of  Lucky and I think she did a stellar job. A sharp style is clear throughout the movie and enables you to really focus on what it’s really all about. Natasha Kermani previously directed quite a few episodes of various TV series and the feature films Shattered  (2017) and  Imitation Girl (2017) , which she also wrote.

For her latest movie, the star of the movie, Brea Grant, is the screenwriter. This is the third feature film screenplay by Brea Grant that has been produced. She debuted with  Best Friends Forever in 2013 which she co-wrote and directed as well as starred in. More recently, she wrote and directed  12 Hour Shift (2020) – read our review of that one here >

I realize I’ve only mentioned Brea Grant as far as the cast is concerned, but that’s just because she is the absolute star of this movie. There are many other actors in  Lucky and they do excellent jobs. All of them – and you’ll see a few familiar faces from indie horror movies along the way.

Overall, I felt the metaphorical vibe of Lucky  played out really  well. Still, I can agree with my viewing partner (and editor) that it felt a bit too long. Also, I know many viewers will want a more definitive ending. And you won’t get it. Lucky  is all about representing the real-life experience of being a woman and since that is neverending, this story can’t end in the classic sense.

Lucky  premiered at the SXSW film festival in 2020 and will be out on Shudder from March 4, 2021.

Director: Natasha Kermani Writer: Brea Grant Stars: Brea Grant, Dhruv Uday Singh, Kausar Mohammed, Hunter C. Smith, Kristina Klebe

Life takes a sudden turn for May, a popular self-help book author, when she finds herself the target of a mysterious man with murderous intentions. Every night, without fail he comes after her, and every day the people around her barely seem to notice. With no one to turn to, May is pushed to her limits and must take matters into her own hands to survive and to regain control of her life.

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About The Author

Karina "ScreamQueen" Adelgaard

I write reviews and recaps on Heaven of Horror. And yes, it does happen that I find myself screaming, when watching a good horror movie. I love psychological horror, survival horror and kick-ass women. Also, I have a huge soft spot for a good horror-comedy. Oh yeah, and I absolutely HATE when animals are harmed in movies, so I will immediately think less of any movie, where animals are harmed for entertainment (even if the animals are just really good actors). Fortunately, horror doesn't use this nearly as much as comedy. And people assume horror lovers are the messed up ones. Go figure!

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Movie Review – Lucky (2021)

March 4, 2021 by Matt Rodgers

Lucky , 2021.

Directed by Natasha Kermani. Starring Brea Grant, Hunter C. Smith, Dhruv Uday Singh, Yasmine Al-Bustami, Kauser Mohammed, Leith M. Burke, and Larry Cedar.

Life takes a sudden turn for May (Brea Grant), a popular self-help book author, when she finds herself the target of a mysterious man with murderous intentions. Every night, without fail he comes after her, and every day the people around her barely seem to notice.

Sometimes it can feel like we’re stuck in a time-loop of our own, what with the amount of films employing the Groundhog Day template; Palm Springs did it for laughs, as did Netflix’s Russian Doll , while we’ve already seen the terrific Happy Death Day tick the masked slasher stalking final girl box. This means home-invasion horror Lucky also needs more than just this familiar gimmick to ensure that it cuts deep enough to scar.

Our final girl is May, who is told in emotionless, automaton fashion by her husband that “a man comes into our house every night and tries to kill us”. It seems perfunctory to him, grabbing a golf club and stating “we have to fight for our lives now”. It’s deeply unsettling, for May and the audience alike, and symptomatic of a film which sustains its short gut-punch run time with a burgeoning sense of unease, rather than any shock tactics or a reliance on jump scares.

The mood is built in a number of ways by sophomore director Natasha Kermani ( Imitation Girl ). Lucky has this strange air of sterility to it, a coldness which heightens the isolation May feels as this strange new world begins to envelop her. Characters are introduced a little like they’re playing a role in something bigger, and there’s a real The Truman Show vibe to how they interact with May, which helps to crank up the anxiety levels.

Complimenting the tone of the film is Jeremy Zuckerman’s terrific score, which veers from John Carpenter style 70s synths, to this hard-to-describe choral sound which signals impending danger. It’s really effective in getting under your skin.

However, Lucky ‘s success can be found in the way that it acknowledges and laughs at the tropes that a slasher film would ordinarily thrive on, such as the downed killer miraculously vanishing as the protagonists look away – “Oh, he’s probably gone already” – and instead decides to imbue this Stepford Wives world with smarts over scares, planting the seeds of something altogether more troubling than simply a man in a mask.

When things start to go bump in the night, May is quickly abandoned by her husband, and despite attacks on three consecutive nights, the police refuse to take her word for it. Everyone seems to accept the fact that this is just what the man does. At work, where she is struggling to come up with ideas for a new book, her genuine talent is dismissed as good fortune. Slowly, this exaggerated world full of “you’re so brave” and “this is how things are” becomes the recognisible norm, and that’s where the real terror can be found.

To say much more would veer into spoiler territory, but everything from harassment, accountability, and the abandonment of women left to deal with their perceived failure and trauma, is all wrapped up in Brea Grant’s clever script, and although the lack of resolution for its central character is frustrating, that’s also the larger point of the movies #MeToo message.

Yet another refreshing twist on the time-loop tale, Lucky is an effective empowerment fable, one which works both as a conversation starter, and an enjoyable slice of home-invasion horror.

Flickering Myth Rating   – Film ★ ★ ★ ★/ Movie ★ ★ ★ ★

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10 Best Animated Western Movies Of All Time

• The Western genre and animation have rarely intersected, with few feature films attempting to bring it to the animated form.
• Animated films that blend the Western genre with another genre, such as comedy or mystery, have been more common than fully embracing the spirit of the Western.
• Some standout animated Western films include "Scooby Doo: Shaggy's Showdown," "Lucky Luke: Ballad of The Daltons," and "Rango," which demonstrate a fun blend of Western themes with mystery, slapstick comedy, and introspection, respectively.

Some truly great films have come out of the rare intersection of animation and the Western genre. Despite the Western genre being one of the oldest in cinema, a shockingly small number of feature films have attempted to bring it to the animated form. It may be that the Western simply came around too early for such a union to be viable. There are plenty of examples of animated shorts which embrace a Western setting, but by the time animated features had gained dominance over shorts, the Western genre had faded in popularity.

Despite the genre’s fall from prominence, it never disappeared entirely. Since the rise in feature-length animation, a handful of 2D and 3D animated films have tried on the dressing of a western. From major studios such as Dreamworks and Disney, to boutique animation houses of varying nationalities, the Western has proven a promising (but often unrewarding) prospect for the animated format. Such filmmakers generally shy away from wholeheartedly embracing the spirit and ethos of the Western, choosing instead to blend it with another genre, such as comedy, animal picture, or mystery.

Scooby Doo: Shaggy’s Showdown (2017)

The Scooby Doo gang has seen numerous incarnations across dozens of series and movies of wildly varying quality. The robust charm of the Scooby gang’s central formula allows the franchise to place its characters into a wide variety of genres and settings. Such is the case in Scooby Doo: Shaggy’s Showdown , which manages to deliver an extremely fun blend of Western and mystery. The film boasts an abandoned goldmine, an old west legend, and one of the franchise’s better monster designs in its spectral cowboy.

Lucky Luke: Ballad Of The Daltons (1978)

The French comic book series Lucky Luke never reached the same level of international success as other European series Tintin and Asterix , but it nevertheless proved big enough in France to warrant several animated films. The second film, Lucky Luke: Ballad of The Daltons , was dubbed over in English and distributed in the US by Disney. The film’s quintessential western plot of four outlaw brothers seeking revenge on a judge and jury is transformed into rollicking cartoon farce by the slapstick world and the interventions of the titular gunslinging lawman. The film is a foreign culture’s fond and funny homage to American Westerns rendered with an outsider’s insight.

RELATED: 10 Upcoming Western Movies You Need To Watch

Bravestarr: The Movie (1988)

The film adaptation of the 1980s series Bravestarr boasts all the charm of the original cartoon. Bravestarr is a deeply fun, heavily stylized space-western that follows Bravestarr, a Native American marshal with magical powers who enforces the law on the planet of New Texas in the 23rd Century. The film serves as Bravestarr’s origin story, centering on his arrival to New Texas and his conflict with the zombie cowboy Tex Hex. While the writing is often stale and predictable, the world is wonderfully imaginative, and the animation itself is a true highlight.

Home On The Range (2004)

Home on The Range may not be among Disney’s best animated movies , but the film is a lovingly animated take on the frontier Western. Its plot of a group of farm animals who seek to save their home by claiming the bounty on the head of a cattle rustler feels true to the spirit of a Western. The story never materializes into anything substantial, but the film certainly has its charms. As one of Disney’s last works of 2D hand-drawn animation, the film is a visual delight, representing the result of nearly seven decades of artistic development. The film also boasts some great songs, courtesy of Disney hitmaker Alan Menken.

RELATED: 20 Greatest Western Movie Endings Of All Time

Calamity, A Childhood Of Martha Jane Cannary (2020)

One of the more critically-lauded entries in the animated-western genre is Calamity, A Childhood of Martha Jane Cannary . Another French film fascinated with the American Wild West, Calamity gives a fictionalized account of the adolescent years of Martha Jane Cannary, who would one day become the legendary frontierswoman Calamity Jane. The narrative is adventurous and, despite its rollicking pace, maintains thematic focus on restrictive social expectations and the bravery of Jane’s defiance. However, the highest praise must be reserved for the film’s beautiful, fluid animation. By doing away with outlines for characters and objects, Calamity 's visual language meaningfully speaks to the beauty and the freedom of the frontier.

Spirit Untamed (2021)

This stand-alone sequel to the beloved 2001 film Spirit likewise tells the story of an untamable horse’s bond with a young human in the American West. In Spirit Untamed , a girl moves to a frontier town where she befriends a young mustang and seeks to aid him in his escape from abusive horse wranglers. While it doesn’t quite measure up to the quality of the first film, it revisits and reinforces the original’s themes of the free and untamable spirit of the West. Spirit Untamed also benefits from beautiful 3D animation and some of the animated medium’s best riding sequences.

Daisy Town (1971)

The original Lucky Luke film, Daisy Town , is widely considered the best of the series. The film centers on the formation of an Old West town in the desert upon the only sign of life within miles, a single daisy. The criminal element in the town soon calls for the services of Lucky Luke, the lawman who can shoot faster than his shadow. Like Ballad of The Daltons , Daisy Town poses an extremely likable pastiche of the American western, complete with the genre’s essential trappings: saloons, outlaws, and showdowns. It’s a funny film with dynamic action and colorful characters, all tied together by an obvious and earnest love for the Western genre.

An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991)

An American Tail: Fievel Goes West is the sequel to 1988’s An American Tail . The film sees Fievel, the titular mouse, stranded in an American frontier town, where he must outwit gunslingers and an evil capitalist cat. Under the supervision of producer Steven Spielberg, Fievel Goes West incorporated dynamic “camera” movement and creative lighting to give the hand drawn animation an impressive cinematic quality. The plot honors the tropes of the Western , but speeds by at the pace of a classic Warner Bros. cartoon, making for a loving and euphoric genre cocktail.

Spirit: Stallion Of The Cimarron (2002)

Spirit: Stallion of The Cimarron follows a wild mustang of the American frontier who fights for freedom after being captured by frontiersfolk bent on taming the region. It’s a stirring fable of the untamable nature of the American West, even amid the encroachment of civilization. The plot lacks sophistication, and the powerful visual storytelling is undermined by the last-minute studio decision to include a redundant inner monologue voiced by Matt Damon, but the film sings with reverence for the majesty of the free West. Its cinematic beauty and enduring resonance make Spirit one of Dreamworks' best films .

Rango (2011)

Rango is an unexpected delight of a film. The story follows a chameleon who stumbles into a position as sheriff of an animal frontier town desperately in need of water. With Rango , director Gore Verbinski demonstrates the same profound understanding of the western genre which his Pirate of The Caribbean films express of the pirate genre. The film not only benefits from beautiful animation and a top-notch voice cast, but also from a mature execution which blends thrilling cinematic action with unexpectedly profound introspection. Rango is not only the best animated western, but also belongs in conversations of the best animated films and best westerns ever made.

A searing replay of insurrection, ‘The Sixth’ should be seen by all

The chilling documentary immerses us in the sensations and shock of Jan. 6, 2021. Civics lessons rarely come this disturbing or this convincing.

At first, you may be wondering why A24, the film distributor known for edgy independent fare, is opting not to release “The Sixth” in theaters and is instead sending it straight to streaming services. Having seen the movie, I think I understand.

This chilling documentary by Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine, immersing a viewer in the sounds, sights, sensations and shock of Jan. 6 , 2021, is best watched not at a public screening, with a restive and possibly argumentative audience, but at home, attended to with sober concentration and preferably older children or grandchildren by one’s side. Civics lessons rarely come this disturbing or this convincing.

The Fines, Oscar-winning documentarians (“Inocente,” 2012), have drawn upon an immense trove of news and personal footage to re-create the events of the day-long attempt by Donald Trump supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol building and halt the official tabulation of votes that would certify Joe Biden as the 46th president. Images from news cameras, body cameras, security cameras and cellphones have been cut together by editors Jeff Consiglio and Chrystie Martinez Gouz to create an Argus-eyed mosaic of insurrection. A discreetly ominous score by H. Scott Salinas rumbles beneath the sounds of chaos that build from early morning on the 6th and culminate in the breaching of the police line outside the Capitol by a mob estimated at 10,000 and the invasion of its corridors by 1,200 rioters.

“The Sixth” relies on the stories of six narrators who were there, told directly to the camera and in voice-over. Two officers with the D.C. police, Christina Laury and Daniel Hodges, provide harrowing accounts from the white-hot center of the assault, while their boss, Robert J. Contee III, named acting chief of the D.C. police only four days earlier, gives us the broader vantage point. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who had buried his 25-year-old son, Tommy, the day before, recalls events as he saw them from the House chamber, while Erica Loewe, deputy communications director for then-House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), gives us the view from the barricaded congressman’s office as the mob pounds on the door. Finally, news photographer Mel D. Cole was in the crowd of Trump supporters as the day progressed from rally to march to riot, and it’s through his lens and memories that we come closest to the attackers themselves.

These are the true believers in Trump’s Big Lie, and they are terrifying. Mostly male, many of them armed, all of them swollen with self-righteous rage, the rioters are seen as individuals and as a seething, pulsating, unified mass of hate. “It was the crowd that was the weapon,” says Officer Hodges, and in the footage of that day, we see that weapon used to crush him and his fellow officers. The police were assaulted with poles, boards, their own batons and bear spray far more harmful than pepper spray. A rioter screams at Hodges to “give me your helmet! I paid for that helmet!” “These people made it clear that they wanted to kill certain members of Congress,” the officer tells the filmmakers.

Embedded in the mob, photographer Cole documented D.C. police Officer Michael Fanone being beaten with pipes and attacked with a stun gun; Fanone suffered burns, a heart attack and traumatic brain injury. “I came for war, man,” one ebullient rioter tells Cole, who expresses horrified amazement that these were the same people who normally expressed their belief that “blue lives matter.” “Not that day,” he says.

Questions remain unanswered by the film, and they nag at history. Among them: Why did the Defense Department hold back National Guard troops stationed nearby while the battle raged for four hours and Contee was forced to call in local officers from Virginia, Maryland and New Jersey? With their arrival, the tide of battle turned and, in Cole’s words, “It was just weirdly … over.” Loewe recalls being led by police out of the Capitol building and seeing a handcuffed rioter laughing. “It was funny to him,” she says with disbelief.

By contrast, “The Sixth” documents a singular tragedy in the life of America with an immediacy that makes one grateful for recording technology; it’s as though we were privileged to witness the Salem witch trials, the Battle of Gettysburg or the Tulsa race massacre at close secondhand. There should be no sense of celebration in this. “I felt embarrassed for all of us,” says Cole, shaking his head. “For all of America.” A true patriot watches “The Sixth” with a deep sense of shame that this happened to our country and a deeper determination to never let it happen again.

Unrated . Available May 3 for purchase and May 10 for rent on Apple, Google Play, Prime Video, YouTube and other platforms. Mob violence, language. 111 minutes.

Ty Burr is the author of the movie recommendation newsletter Ty Burr’s Watch List at tyburrswatchlist.com .

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Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

The origin story of renegade warrior Furiosa before her encounter and teamup with Mad Max. The origin story of renegade warrior Furiosa before her encounter and teamup with Mad Max. The origin story of renegade warrior Furiosa before her encounter and teamup with Mad Max.

• George Miller
• Nick Lathouris
• Prateek Bando
• Anya Taylor-Joy
• Chris Hemsworth
• Charlee Fraser
• 2 Critic reviews

• Dr. Dementus

• Immortan Joe …

• Praetorian Jack

• Rictus Erectus

• The Organic Mechanic

• Rakka The Brackish

• Young Furiosa

• Pregnant Wife #2

• The Octoboss

• Pregnant Wife #1

• Treadmill Rat
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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• Trivia Filmed in New South Wales, Australia. All Mad Max movies have been filmed in Australia, with the exception of Fury Road, when record rain falls transformed the normally arid desert areas into lush green growth areas.

Monologue : 45 years after the collapse, a young Furiosa is taken from her family. She will devote the rest of her life to finding her way home. This is her odyssey.

• Connections Featured in The Project: Episode dated 1 December 2023 (2023)

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• When will Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga be released? Powered by Alexa
• Who is Chris Hemsworth playing?
• May 24, 2024 (United States)
• Furiosa: Câu Chuyện Từ Max Điên
• Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia
• Warner Bros.
• Kennedy Miller Mitchell
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $168,000,000 (estimated)

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• Runtime 2 hours 28 minutes

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