On paper, Stone Cold Fox is a movie made for me. It features three of my favorites: Kiernan Shipka in the lead, plus Krysten Ritter and Kiefer Sutherland as villains. Always fun to see those two going against type. Plus, the film by director/co-writer Sophie Tabet has a retro crime flick vibe to go along with its ’80s setting. Movies of the time were dominated by male stars like Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis, so to see them from a female perspective is kinda cool. And yet, it lacks the spark, the violence, and character to escape feeling like another generic crime movie.
The plot is pretty basic, which is generally an okay thing in this genre. Shipka plays Fox, who flees from an abusive home, leaving her younger sister behind. Left to fend for herself on the streets, she is eventually picked up by the seductive Goldie (Ritter), who makes Fox part of her little commune. But it turns out that Goldie is the town’s biggest drug dealer, working alongside the corrupt and racist cop Sgt. Billy Breaker (Sutherland). Things take a nasty turn when Fox steals a duffel bag full of cocaine and attempts to flee from Goldie to be reunited with her family. But when Fox thinks her sister has been kidnapped by Goldie, she must fight to get her back.
Stone Cold Fox tries to bolster the formulaic narrative with plenty of vintage bells and whistles. Grainy filters, tie-dye color schemes, dynamic splashy introductions, multiple key sequences set at an old roller skating rink, and one character whose sole purpose is to reference classic action movies, all hammer home the tone that Tabet is shooting for. Unfortunately, the script doesn’t give Shipka’s Fox the cool one-liners and larger-than-life personality needed to carry this kind of movie. Ritter also seems wildly out of place as the villainous Goldie. She’s not particularly intimidating so we don’t really anticipate the eventual showdown with Fox. On the other hand, Sutherland knows exactly the kind of movie he’s in and nails it, with Breaker’s casual bigotry and easy corruption being the most fun the movie delivers. Especially when Sutherland is sharing scenes with Jamie Chung as Officer Corbett, who sniffs out his criminality right from the start.
But it would be wrong to say that everything is wrong with Stone Cold Fox; it just doesn’t go far enough. Fox occasionally breaks the fourth wall, sometimes in mid-jumpkick, and you expect the movie to feature a lot more of that. However, it’s few and far between which is disappointing because Shipka has always been great at projecting sly confidence, as she did for years on Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. There’s a nifty little montage sequence, in homage to action movies of the period, and Mishel Prada is a blast as Frankie, an ex-combat medic with PTSD who might go full Rambo if you don’t watch out. Also, what the heck is awesome The Boys star Karen Fukuhara doing in this? She has next to nothing to do as Minx, another of Goldie’s prized possessions. You keep expecting her to go wild in an over-the-top action sequence, but the film doesn’t feature any of those at all.
Stone Cold Fox is a case of a potentially great film not living up to that potential. While the cast assembled is impressive, the script lets them down, and it never fully captures the spirit of the classic movies it’s emulating.
Vertical will release Stone Cold Fox in theaters November 7th.
