The Newton Boys

If I were producing a "true crime" bio-pic, Richard Linklater--the man who chronicled the meandering Slacker culture and let two young lovers talk the night away in Before Sunrise--wouldn't exactly be my first choice as director. Predictably, Linklater's The Newton Boys is more amiable and unhurried than frantic and violent. The surprise is the way that amiability turns out to be the film's most appealing quality. The story follows the true adventures of the most successful gang of bank robbers in American history, four 1920s Texas siblings named Newton and their explosives expert. From the opening credits, it is clear that Linklater is aiming for old-fashioned whimsy in his telling of the tale, with title cards and sienna-tinted head shots styled after silent films. The Newton Boys generally paints its protagonists as almost casual outlaws, polite young men who happened to be very good at robbing banks. In fact, it's such a lightweight bit of history that it threatens to float away entirely whenever there's not a robbery going on. Still, there's something undeniably charming about the film, some intangible alchemy between the actors' obvious enjoyment of their roles and a story with no greater agenda than to spotlight a previously unknown bit of Americana. If you've indulged Linklater's episodic films in the past, you probably won't be disappointed by his willingness to wander down the side roads here. Recommended. (S. Renshaw)