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The Film: 3.5/5
Hungary’s rejected submission for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards, Kills on Wheels is a rather unique take on the time-honored tale of hapless innocents who get unwillingly sucked into a world of crime and violence, as its main characters are disabled – two of whom cannot get around without the use of wheelchairs. But don’t bother assuming this is some tawdry exploitation junk like Mr. No Legs; Attila Till, an actor and television personality who made his feature directorial debut with the 2008 comedy Panic, has a more interesting story to tell and three-dimensional characters to flesh it out.
The film isn’t a total success as it suffers from pacing issues and often forgets which story it wants to tell, but when it works, Kills makes for compelling, provocative entertainment. Zoltan Fenyvesi, who is disabled in real life, stars as Zolika, a teenager who lives in a Budapest rehabilitation facility with his best friend Barba (Adam Fekete), another youngster who suffers from a paralyzing condition and shares with Zolika a love of comics and the ambition to become a comic book artist. Zolika needs a life-saving operation, but the only person who can afford it is his estranged father, and Zolika doesn’t want his money if it comes from guilt and not love.
Life is ordinary for these kids until they meet Rupaszov (Szabolcs Thuroczy), a former fireman who was paralyzed from the waist down in the line of duty and just recently was released from prison. Unlike Zolika and Barba, he refuses to accept the lousy hand life has dealt him and works tirelessly to get his legs working again. He also manages to make ends meet by working as a hit man for Serbian gangster Rados (Dusan Vitanovics). When Zolika figures he can make the money for the surgery himself, he and Barba accept Rupaszov’s offer to work with him in seeking out, and then taking out, certain targets on behalf of Rados. Naturally they both get more than what they bargained for, and our teen protagonists are forced to navigate their way out of the underworld before the darkness consumes them completely.
Till has made a good second film that stays true to its potentially offensive premise and doesn’t devolve into gratuitous violence and sadism at the expense of plot and character development. Even if his script carries with it little in the way of narrative originality, he keeps it sparse and focused, with sympathetic roles that his actors are able to mold into grounded individuals and not mere avatars at the service of story progression. Speaking of which, Till’s stars Zoltan Fenyvesi, Adam Fekete, and Szabolcs Thuroczy are genuine finds, perfectly capable of performances that bleed raw empathy and pain in a world that considers them half-human because of their disabilities.
Till keeps the bloodier aspects of his film to a minimum amount he can spread throughout to pick up the flagging pace, preferring instead to explore the everyday lives of his lead characters and the struggles they encounter. The lower-class Hungarian backdrop is rich with detail, from the cheap clothing of the thugs with whom Rupaszov associates to the featureless, ordinary buildings where Till chooses to set most of the important scenes in Kills on Wheels, all captured in rain-coated gunmetal gray by cinematographer Imre Juhasz, who learned his craft working as a second unit director and camera operator on major Hollywood productions of recent years like The Martian, Atomic Blonde, and Blade Runner 2049.
Audio/Video: 4/5
Kills on Wheels comes to Region B Blu-ray from Eureka Entertainment in an excellent AVC encoded 1080p high-definition transfer presented in the film’s original 2.35:1 widescreen aspect ratio. The picture looks about as good as a Hungarian independent movie shot digitally possibly could. Grain is slight but consistent and leads to a healthy film-like appearance that brings out a little extra raw beauty in the desolate Budapest locations. Colors are vivid and authentic, while facial details and texture in the background scenery and props are very sharp and prominent. Dual Hungarian soundtracks are offered in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and 2.0 stereo. Given that the sound mix on Kills is honestly basic and nothing about it stands out, either track will suit your listening needs, but the 5.1 offers a more immersive experience that allows the viewer to hear every layer of the mix with strong clarity and depth. English subtitles have also been provided.
Extras: 1/5
The only extra feature is the theatrical trailer (2 minutes). A short promotional spot for the film’s distributor Montage Pictures plays before the main menu. Eureka has also included a Region 2 DVD copy.
Overall: 3/5
Kills on Wheels is a cool little dark comedy-thriller that makes the most of its budget and premise and whose laughs often stick in the throat. It’s a stylish effort from director Attila Till, who clearly has a future in this line of work, and he gets unforced, natural performances from his talented cast. Eureka Entertainment’s new Blu-ray release may be regrettably short on supplements, but the strong a/v quality along with the film itself makes it an easy recommendation for adventurous lovers of world cinema.
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