New on Netflix: Bullitt County Review

Bullitt County is a story about a bachelor party weekend that goes south very quickly when the group decides to look for the Bullitt Family Treasure.

Arriving on Netflix this past week, Bullitt County is going to be a hard film to describe without spoiling anything.

It’s set in the 70’s and follows a group of friends who are getting together for one of the group’s bachelor party weekend. They decide to hit the Kentucky Bourbon Trail but their first stop doesn’t exactly work out as planned.

Our main character Gordie (Mike C. Nelson) decides to explore the town a bit and runs into someone he recognizes from their time there 10 years before. They catch up for a bit before Carolyn (Alysia Livingston) tells Gordie about the Bullitt Family Treasure. Knowing he has time to kill now, Gordie decides to pitch the treasure hunt to the group.

They agree to go after getting some outside encouragement and having Gordie pull the groom card. This is where the movie really starts. They search for the buried money, hidden since the prohibition, and grapple with the legend that states that the Bullitt family will fiercely protect that money. A confrontation leads to a series of dramatic events and the skeletons that the group buried 10 years ago come back to haunt them. Along the way, there are several twists that are revealed to you and explain moments that may have come off as weird earlier.

The pacing

The movie moves along at a nice pace for the duration. The first act is mostly just letting you get to know the characters, the second starts to show rifts between them before things really fall apart, and the final is spent figuring out who will make it out of these woods. Flashbacks also help break up the story and keep things from ever becoming dull.

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The story

Again, I wanted to try to set this story up as well as I could without spoiling anything. When I say there are multiple twists in no way do I mean that the movie makes you think one thing, takes it away then does that to you again. The twists are unrelated in a sense but both change the way you will look at events that may have happened earlier on. That was at least the case for me. There was one aspect of the movie, in particular, that was bothering me from the beginning and ends up being tied to a huge reveal.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about how the reveals were handled initially. Many films hit you with twists and leave you to fill in the blanks but Bullitt County makes sure to give you the full context with their use of flashbacks. Flashbacks from 10 years ago as well as flashbacks from earlier in the film.

Overall

Bullitt County cleaned up on the film festival circuit with eight wins total, mostly for Best Film, and 4 additional nominations. If you enjoy indie crime/thriller type movies there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy Bullitt County. Personally, I was pleasantly surprised by the film and think it makes for an easy watch when you’re in between binge-watching your favorite shows.

Bullitt County is currently streaming on Netflix.