I’d been aware of director Anthony Coryell’s latest film, Caged And Wild, for a few years now. The film has since found its way on Digital and free streaming and it’s worth a watch if independent films and crime thrillers are your thing.
Coryell directs from a script he wrote with Cody Chacon for the story of Samantha (Paisley Bird), a scientist taken captive by a small band of outlaw thieves who’ve broken into the facility run by her abusive husband, Doug (Jeff Willy). Left to the designs of the thieves for the sake of their survival, Samantha resolves to adapt after saving the life of one of the captors, while the group tries to bide their time whilst in the possession of an unknown serum they’ve taken from the facility.
Little do they know that Doug is as desperate to get his merchandise back as are the people he works for. Abandoned by their buyer at the last minute with no money to leave the country, Donny (Justin T. Evans) Neville (Mauricio Saldana) and Betty (Tori Keaton) have no choice but to keep moving, and stave off swarms of gunmen in their wake. That includes Samantha who, in the process of adapting to her new found family and sense freedom, must prepare herself for the bitter, bloody divorce that awaits her.
Caged And Wild delivers a largely palatable crime flick from start to finish, accompanied by a hearty side of self-discovery with Bird’s character at the forefront. The performances are feasible for the most part with Keaton being one of the film’s strongest actors on screen, in addition to co-star Levi Connelly as Wade, who Betty’s lover and the slightly more unhinged member of the gang.
The film definitely suffers from its share of plot holes and not much is explored about other aspects in the movie, including the mysterious serum the gang steals. Several minor moments and details observed in the film take place without any sizeable explanation, and so you’re left to pretty much take the film at face value.
The good news is that Coryell doesn’t disappoint when it comes to delivering a fair amount of action to help whet the appetite, featuring stunt and fight sequences coordinated by Shane Alexander. The action brings a few great highlights along the way, including what I shamelessly call a money shot that we get at the top of the film’s climatic shootout finale.
Caged And Wild is indie action at its most honest. It’s low brow in many areas but it’s not lost on you the amount of work and camraderie Coryell and the cast brought to the table.
Caged And Wild is currently streaming on Tubi.
