Outlaws and Angels

JT Mollner's debut feature is a late 19th-century home-invasion story in which a remote ranch in New Mexico is taken over by a trio of bank robbers—laconic boss Henry (mumbling Chad Michael Murray), sniveling weasel Charlie (Nathan Russell), and buffoonish Little Joe (Keith Loneker). The ranch is home to a strange family: alcoholic father George (Ben Browder), his Bible-thumping wife Ada (Teri Polo), and their two daughters—Charlotte (Madisen Beaty) and Florence (Francesca Eastwood). The girls clearly despise one another, a feeling that is exacerbated by the fact that their father does not always treat them with paternal devotion, and their mother looks the other way. What follows is a painfully protracted game of cat-and-mouse, with the outlaws toying mercilessly with their captives. But loyalties shift as Henry and young Florence lock eyes (and more), and Florence morphs literally overnight into a gunslinger aiming to bloodily punish her family for their transgressions. Meanwhile, bounty hunter Josiah (a nearly comatose Luke Wilson) is periodically seen pressing on after the crooks and pausing to deliver voiceover monologues. Lugubrious, talky, unrelievedly nasty, and absurdly pretentious, Outlaws and Angels is not recommended. (F. Swietek)