Texas Red

• Directed by Travis Mills
• March 2, 2021 (US)

An African-American man is hunted by hundreds through the winter wilderness of Mississippi in the 1940s.

There is the claim that Texas Red is based on a true story. As with any based-on-a-true-story presentation dig up the truth. Don’t take what you see as something akin to a documentary. Especially in this case because it looks like details of the event at the moment are scarce due to the passage of time. This looks like one of those topics that is only now getting a serious look.

This was part of something called 12 Movies in 12 Months-whatever that means. There are acceptable production values in Texas Red but the main strike against this is the acting. These are quite possibly the most wooden people they could find. The African-American actors are not bad but truth be told the white actors universally lack noticeable ability. Maybe it was a lack of takes or the aforementioned lack of ability, but this often comes off as a first reading for these people and not an actual performance.

It could be the lack of interesting things done with the camera. It’s a static camera that’s often mixed with shaky handheld shots that do nothing to communicate anything about the scene. I am bothered by how crisp and clean the clothing looks. Nothing looks like it’s been worn before.

There isn’t much of a sense of who is connected to who which causes the characters to blur together. It also makes it hard to become invested in a character when you’re not sure what their place in the story is. Texas Red shows the white characters much more than it does the African-American characters. They are affected much more harshly but are almost supporting participants in the narrative. Texas Red (Cedric Burnside) borders on incidental. I am not advocating for some equality in story time but making it more about the victimizers than the victimized seems wrong.

There are moments that hint at intelligence or potential quality. One thing I never recall seeing in a movie is done here where Texas Red pours gasoline on two burlap sacks that go on his feet. It is to hide his scent from tracking dogs. It demonstrates the character’s skills and allows them to logically get away in scenarios where he should be caught. Despite moments like that this is just kind of boring. It often feels like it’s going to get to something, but it never quite gets to that something.

Texas Red never gets to the meat of the story. It is mostly soy and tofu. There are so many questions left unanswered. Some things cannot be answered because they are completely unknown to this day per text in the film but we don’t even really get a hypothesis on the whys or whats. If it’s hinted at or even stated in the movie I forgot by the end because this did little to keep the viewer invested.

The characters blur together and you lose track of the story maybe because there is no sense of momentum towards a climax. That is really frustrating for me because it should not be that way here. This would never win any award but should have been a good view based on the premise.

Texas Red could’ve been something good, but it just fumbled itself from the start. I think you can skip this one.