The Thicket (2024)

Levon Hawke is Jack Parker, Esme Creed-Miles is his younger sister Lula, and they’re facing an uncertain future.

Smallpox has ravaged the small town of Hinge Gate, robbing them of both parents. Their grandfather figures to send them to live with their Aunt Tess in Kansas.

But at a ferry crossing, the trio have a chance encounter with Cut Throat Bill (Juliette Lewis) and her gang.

Knowing her reputation as a notorious outlaw, Caleb Parker pulls a gun on Cut Throat, hoping to use the ferry first. It was the wrong move to make.

By the time the smoke settles, Caleb is laying dead, Jack has been knocked unconscious and pretty Lula has become the latest of Cut Throat’s young female captives.

Jack staggers to the nearest town, where Cut Throat and her gang have just struck, robbing a general store.

Desperate to rescue his sister, he offers Reginald Jones (Peter Dinklage) and Eustace Hollow a share of the bounty on Cut Throat’s head. Plus the deed to a 700-acre ranch in Wind River, Montana, left him by his grandfather.

The chance for a home of his own is particularly appealing to Jones, a dwarf whose father sold him to a carnival as a sideshow attraction when he was 8 years old.

As for Cut Throat Bill, she’s haunted by her own past. And has the scars all over her face and neck to prove it.

“Pretty don’t survive,” she tells her young captive.

Peter Dinklage as Reginald Jones, enticed to pursue Cut Throat Bill for a bounty and a promise of 700 acres in The Thicket (2024)

Juliette Lewis, coming across Reginald Jones at a trading post in The Thicket (2024)

Review:

Worlds better than most Westerns being released in the 2020s in terms of production values, cinematography and, of course, acting.

An original plot not based on the life of a famous Western figure helps. So does a well-done final showdown.

A large portion of the film features a three-way chase. Jones took a knife to a businessman who tried to cheat him. The businessman deputizes two townsmen.

So while Jack, Jones and his sidekick Eustace are on the trail of Cut Throat Bill; Simon Deasy and brother Malachi are on the trail of Jones.

Esme Creed-Miles turns in a standout performance as the young female captive. Leslie Grace plays Jimmie Sue, a young woman Jack rescues from a whore house.

As for the stars of the show, this wasn’t the first Western for either. Dinklage of “Game of Thrones” fame had a memorable role in the excellent 2010 Western “The Last Rites of Ransom Pride.” Lewis was the female lead in 2004’s “Renegade” (aka “Blueberry”).

Esme Creed-Miller as Lula Parker, sure she’s going to be killed when Cut Throat Bill reaches her destination in The Thicket (2024)

Levon Hawke as Jack Parker, fretting that Lucy might want to stay with her captors in The Thicket (2024)

Directed by:
Elliott Lester

Cast:
Peter Dinklage … Reginald Jones
Juliette Lewis … Cut Throat Bill
Levon Hawke … Jack Parker
Esme Creed-Miles … Lula Parker
Gbenga Akinnagbe … Eustace Hollow
Ned Dennehy … Baldy
James Hetfield … Simon Deasy
Macon Blair … Malachi Deasy
Arliss Howard … Rev. Ephron Karisson
Leslie Grace … Jimmie Sue
David Midthunder … Black Mouth
Andrew Schulz … Hector
Ryan Robbins … Bailey Mayfield
Teach Grant … Slim
Derek Gilroy … Fatty
Roger LeBlance … Blondie
Guy Sprung … Caleb Parker
Brent Stait … Marvin Taylor
Caleb Ellsworth-Clark … John Taylor

Runtime: 108 min.

Gbenga Akinnagbe as Eustace Hollow, offering some advice to Jack Palmer as the trio hit the trail in The Thicket (2024)

Leslie Grace as Jimmie Sue, ready to do her part in rescuing Jack Parker’s younger sister in The Thicket (2024)

Memorable lines:

Cut Throat Bill, at the ferry crossing: “Oh, look, he’s got a little gun.”
Caleb Parker: “We don’t want no trouble.”
Cut Throat Bill: “You want trouble soon as you draw on me.”

Cut Throat Bill to Lula Parker: “Pretty don’t survive.”

Lula Parker, confused by the two men she encounters trying to flee from Cut Throat: “You’re hunting dwarves?”
Deputy Simon Deasy: “A gunslinger. His name is Jones.”
Lula: “Why ya huntin’ him?”
Simon: “He cut our boss.”
Lula: “Why’d he do that?”
Malachi Deasy: “Our boss was tryin’ to make him dance in a dress.”
Lula: “Sounds like your boss deserved it.”

Andrew Shulz as Hector, humored that Jack Parker thinks he’s going to walk out of the bordello with new whore Jimmie Sue in The Thicket (2024)

Ryan Robbins as Bailey Mayfield, suggesting Jones don a dress and do a dance in retrun for full payment for grave-digging services in The Thicket (2024)

Reginald Jones, agreeing to continue the journey with Jack: “You gonna rescue every whore we meet along the way.”

Cut Throat Bill, spotting Reginald Jones in a trading post: “You’re the littlest man I ever seen.”
Jones: “And you’re the ugliest.”

Reginald Jones, when he and Jack argue over who should be in charge: “Alright, you ride up front. You make the bigger target anyway.”

James Hetfield as Simon Deasy and Macon Blair as his brother Malachi, deputized to bring back Reginald Jones in The Thicket (2024)

Teach Grant as Slim, wondering where Cut Throat Bill is leading him and the rest of her gang in The Thicket (2024)

Gbenga Akinnagbe as Eustace Hollow, trying to track Cut Throat Bill and her gang in The Thicket (2024)

Leslie Grace as Jimmie Sue, surprised by Malachi Deasy (Macon Blair), a deputy pursuing Jones in The Thicket (2024)

Levon Hawke as Jack Parker, jumping to the defense of a threatened Jimmie Sue in The Thicket (2024)

Esme Creed-Miller as Lula Parker, hiding behind her brother when they first encounter Cut Throat Bill in The Thicket (2024)

Juliette Lewis as Cut Throat Bill, holding up a general store in The Thicket (2024)

Peter Dinklage as Reginald Jones, taking aim at a pursuing posse with his long-range rifle in The Thicket (2024)