Samara Weaving and Kyle Gallner star in the director Adam Carter Rehmeir’s romantic crime thriller Carolina Caroline.
Adam Carter Rehmeier has quietly amassed one of the best careers of any independent filmmaker of recent memory. Dinner in America and Snack Shack show a filmmaker unafraid to give us a portrait of the crafty entrepreneurship and defiance of youth in America. Carolina Caroline shifts that with the same critical eye towards how America treats defiance of societal norms. A romantic crime thriller that feels like the darker spiritual cousin to his brighter punk rock rom com Dinner in America, Carolina Caroline shows Rehmeier and stars Samara Weavine and Kyle Gallner at their very best.
Gas station employee Caroline (Weaving) spots Oliver (Gallner) pulling a con on her susceptible boss. She calls Oliver out. Oliver, rather than running, is intrigued and attracted to the brash Caroline. The attraction is mutual, and quickly Caroline is drawn into the grifter’s world of small/short cons. Their love of each other and the con spirals from the grift to bank robberies. The defiance of the conventions and corporate overlords turns violent, and Caroline and Oliver are no longer on the good time road trip around America. With their crimes quickly catching up to them, can the couple continue to run?
Both Samara Weaving and Kyle Gallner have continued to prove, with each role, to be nimble, charismatic stars capable of taking on any role they choose. Weaving has come off a truly great run in the last few months with Ready or Not 2: Here I Come and Over Your Dead Body, which is possibly the best of the three. The warmth, intelligence, and star power she brings to the role while still keeping it grounded recalls the female superstars of the 1990s. Gallner’s leading man collaboration with Rehmeier continues to be a successful playing to the actor’s strengths and charms. There is a more grounded 70s leading man gravitas that recalls McQueen from The Getaway or James Caan. His ability to play both the romance and the violence of the character is a rarity in the current crop of male leading men and should gain him more work.
Few films in recent memory, save for Rehmeier’s own Dinner in America, have showcased romance in a palpable, enjoyable, and relatable way. Both are stories about finding someone when you are adrift, helping you unlock something that makes you a stronger person, both with and without them. In Dinner, it’s punk rock music; here, it’s cons and the grift. There is an excitement in the first half as Caroline finds she has a true talent for confidence games, and how Oliver feeds off of her talents. The romance that sparks between them isn’t just a montage of cliché moments; it’s them learning about one another, gaining experience together, and how that builds. Weaving and Gallner play off of one another, giving the film’s first half its propulsive energy and making the second half earn its dramatic heft.
Carolina Caroline is a rarity in theaters nowadays. A finely crafted, dramatic romantic thriller with a central romance that has real stakes, and we become invested in.