THE STANDOFF AT SPARROW CREEK MM D: Henry Dunham. U.S. 88 min. Sep 12, 11:59 pm, Ryerson Sep 14, 3 pm, Scotiabank 12 Sep 16, 4:15 pm, Scotiabank 11. See listing. Rating: NNN
When an incident at a police funeral threatens to trigger a civilian uprising across America, a handful of militiamen (among them James Badge Dale, Patrick Fischler and Chris Mulkey) assemble at a lumber warehouse to figure out which one of them might have been responsible for it.
Writer/director Dunham’s first feature is basically Reservoir Dogs with seething white militants instead of squirrely jewel thieves, but that’s no sin the dialogue crackles, the characters are well-defined, and the actors smartly cast – especially Dale, whose coiled, crafty vibe is ideally suited to the role of a former police interrogator.
But Quentin Tarantino’s shadow is a long one, and in the final analysis, Dunham’s twists aren’t audacious enough to push The Standoff At Sparrow Creek out of it.
