Hobo with a Shotgun [Review by Haus]

If you haven’t heard of Hobo with a Shotgun by now, you probably aren’t in its target market.

No worry. For those not blessed with a solid knowledge of memes and grindhouse revivals, here’s the backstory in brief: In 2007 Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez released Grindhouse, a deliberately B-movie-esque horror/thriller double feature. Shown as a single picture, it was actually two full-length films, complete with fake ads and fake trailers for even sillier B-movies. Rodriguez directed the first movie, Planet Terror, and Tarantino the second, Death Proof. Grindhouse proved more than the sum of its parts: The entire double-feature experience, complete with grainy, flickery, washed-out ads for Mexican food (Acuna Bros. — located right next to the theater!) and hilarious trailers was atmospheric and unique in contemporary film. The films themselves were a bit hit or miss, but if you managed to sit through to the end you generally left happy.

One of the fake trailers was for a movie called Machete, about a Mexican federale turned migrant laborer hired to assassinate a senator (then double crossed and left for dead, bien sur). This proved so popular that it actually was made into an eponymous feature film, released in 2010 and starring Danny Trejo (from the fake trailer), as well as Robert DeNiro and Jessica Alba (who, ahem, were not in the fake trailer). The point here is that in our modern day backwards-land, fake film trailers can now give rise to actual feature films. The illusion has become real.

That’s exactly what happened with Hobo with a Shotgun. Rodriguez and SXSW (an annual Austin music and film festival) held an open competition to crown the best new fan-made Grindhouse-style trailer. The Hobo with a Shotgun trailer emerged the fan favorite and the winner, and — you know what’s next — a real film deal followed! Admittedly, there’s a certain giddy joy to be had in seeing respected Hollywood muscle conscripted to play cardboard caricatures plucked straight from a 1970s Charles Bronson vigilante flick. True to form, (digital) cheers erupted when Rutger Hauer signed on to play the title role.

With this background in mind, Hobo with a Shotgun makes a fair bit of sense. There’s a market — admittedly not huge — for modern, shoestring-budget, slightly-tongue-in-cheek knock-offs of old, shoestring-budget, only-slightly-more-earnest B-movies.

Make no mistake: This nascent genre already has distinct conventions, just like Bollywood or slasher pics or whatever else, and Hobo hews to them nicely.

Hauer is surprisingly sympathetic in the title role (within reason, you know). A film that could easily have lost its audience manages instead to hold on. It bears mention that Hobo is also a good deal better than the mindless vigilante pics it apes. It has more heart, and some terrifically cheeky lines. (It also boasts easily the most dystopic and broken portrayal of Halifax — a tidy Canadian maritime city where I once lived as a child — ever recorded on film.)

Some reviewers will no doubt decry Hobo for its wanton violence, sparse dialogue, and generally over-the-top approach. Pay no mind. It’s pure confusion to review Hobo like a normal film. Hobo is a very specific product for a very specific audience, and in my view it should be enjoyed in a very specific way. That is: Alongside a room full of rowdy, probably drunk people who either 1) have never seen it before, or 2) like you, have seen it dozens of times already. And who appreciate a good homage, a good send up, and also are not put off by the sort of exploding-blood-bag “violence” and shock tactics found chiefly in thirty-year-old cut-rate horror films. Sound like a tall order? Not really. I just saw Hobo in a theatre packed with just this type of audience. It was a blast.

Of course things could be said about Hobo that would treat it as social commentary, such as discussing exploitation of the homeless (think the “BumFight” controversy), deconstructing its frequent magenta color bleeds, or whatever else. But doing so seems wrong. Hobo is a low-budget roller coaster ride with admittedly modest aspirations — namely, to stick to the B-movie mold by pairing a tried-and-true plot arc with novel and shocking modes of human execution. This it does well. So let’s not turn everything into a sophomore’s “modern cinema and society” paper. Some films are just plain fun.

I’m not sure how well Hobo will do in the box office. It’s limited release, though given its budget it surely doesn’t need to do especially well to be a solid success. And I hope it is, because it appears that this new genre may have some legs after all.

HAUS VERDICT: A hobo with a shotgun. If this is what you want, then this is exactly what you want.

See what the other half thinks: Parsi’s review.