Carolina Caroline, Short Takes on other cinematic topics

“Running on Empty”

(Blog posting title taken from a Jackson Browne song

on his 1977 album named for that tune)

Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke

I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative.  However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, but better options are on the horizon.  (Note: Anything in bold blue below [or near purple] is a link to something in the above title or the review.)

My reviews’ premise: “You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”

(from "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the song’s name)

However, if you’d like to know more about rationale of my ratings visit this explanatory site.

                Carolina Caroline (Adam Carter Rehmeier)

                                        rated R    107 min.

Here’s the trailer:

        (Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size; 

        activate the same button or use “esc” keyboard key to return to normal.)

If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy).  To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows: 

⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.

(Yeah, I stole this photo from some other site; blame it on bad influence from Oliver and Caroline.)

 

WHAT HAPPENS: (Sorry, but this has been another one of those very-busy-with-other-things-than-blogging weeks for me so my comments here will be shorter than I hoped to do, especially about a film I enjoyed so much; however, you can get a few more plot details at this site.)  Caroline Daniels (Samara Weaving) is a born-and-raised young woman somewhere in rural Texas (I know plenty of places there like the one depicted on screen) working at her father’s (Jon Gries) gas station/convenience shop, dreaming about traveling far away (Dad Hank did a bit of that too, saying he’d go to Ecuador, though he never did), including to South Carolina to find Mom, who abandoned Caroline when she was a baby.  One day a grifter, Oliver (Kyle Gallner), drops in, pulls some kind of a con on Dad that I couldn't fully follow (“Say, why don’t I give you another dollar, then you give me a twenty?”), so Caroline tracks him to a local bar that night, they quickly connect, soon she’s on the road with him pulling the cash con for increasingly higher stakes; then, wearing a wig and sunglasses she starts robbing small banks while he drives the getaway car.  Caroline eventually finds Mom (Kyra Sedgwick), a caustic alcoholic, which encourages Caroline to move up to bigger banks so she and Oliver can afford to leave the country.  After one job a cop pulls them over on a country road, realizes they’re in a stolen car, but Oliver kills him before he can call for help, though it eventually results in their photos all over local newspapers and TV news, ⇒leading them to a crowded roadhouse where more cops are on the way so Oliver fires his gun to create chaos as Caroline runs out with the rest of the crowd, the police kill Oliver in a shootout.  Caroline still has several hundred in the car trunk so our story ends with her having one last phone call with Dad, buying a plane ticket to Ecuador, then pulling another (high stakes) cash con with the ticket agent.⇐

SO WHAT? Unless you’re totally unaware of some true small-time hoods on the run in celebrated classic cinema (all true 5 stars-triumphs in my opinion) you can’t help watching Carolina Caroline without thinking about Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn, 1967), Badlands (Terrence Malick, 1973), and even a touch of Thelma & Louise (Ridley Scott, 1991), with Carolina … not fully in the same league as these masterpieces yet intriguingly-watchable, enjoyable in its own right.  Weaving is especially effective in her more-flamboyant role, although cool, calm, collected (most of the time) Gallner makes a perfect balance with her as she grows in her criminal abilities, providing some new challenges to his assumed control of their situations.  There’s even occasional humor in a few of the scenes here (such as when Caroline’s rushing out of the bank after pulling her first robbery but forgets to take the bag of cash) reminding me of some similar moments of relief in Bonnie and Clyde.  I’ve had quite a nice string of mostly 4-stars experiences so far this year (although it took me into Spring to finally get done with all the 2025 titles I still wanted to explore, finally able to focus on 2026 releases), with Carolina Caroline fitting in nicely with other successes I’ve been fortunate enough to encounter this year (I hope there’ll be many more to come as the months keep rolling on).

BOTTOM LINE FINAL COMMENTS: Carolina Caroline made its domestic (U.S.-Canada) theatrical debut June 5, 2026, grossed $269.1 thousand (worldwide $392 thousand), now it's on streaming renting for $9.99 on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV (I ended up renting from both; don't ask!).  The CCAL’s encourages your viewership as the Rotten Tomatoes positive reviews are 90% while the usually-less-enthusiastic Metacritic average score comes in at 75%.  I also actively support it as does Sheila O'Malley of RogerEbert.com: “Rehmeier, though, cares about individuality, and he has a sense of humor. He doesn’t force chemistry, but he leaves lots of space for it. Chemistry isn’t about people being naked in bed. Chemistry is about how people listen to each other talk. Chemistry is about what we say in vulnerable moments and how our vulnerability is handled in response. Chemistry is finding each other funny or adorable. When Caroline and Oliver kiss, it’s not just hot or sexy. You can feel their relief. [...] they are not alone in this weird, sad world.”

           

 As you might expect, though, with a dissenting voice we have Movie Nation's Roger Moore:  “But this narrative is so worn and this variation on it so watered-down from the decades of genre pictures that preceded it that the filmmakers and actors have to convince us that ‘60 second' robberies are casually planned, practiced and carried out. [¶] ‘It’s easy, right?’ No, it isn’t. [¶]  And setting your movie in the pre-CCTV surveillance state/phone booth/no cell phones seen/stealable-with-a-screwdriver cars era doesn’t make it more plausible. Not in the least.”  Such rejections notwithstanding, I liked it a lot, but need to move on so I’ll try to make up for my shortness this week with 2 offerings of concluding Musical Metaphors, the first referring somewhat to Caroline’s parent-seeking with James Taylor’s "Carolina in My Mind" (1968 James Taylor album), the second more from her father’s perspective, "Caroline, No" (Brian Wilson, 1966 Beach Boys Pet Sounds album). 

            

SHORT TAKES

          

Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:

 

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