TIFF 2022: Butcher’s Crossing Review

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.

The prospect of Nicolas Cage in a western will likely be enough to drive potential audiences towards a film like Butcher’s Crossing. Though it may not bring all that new to the table in terms of westerns, for what it does, it does surprisingly well in spite of a lower budget. Set against a beautiful Montana backdrop, this survival story in the American old west fueled by pride and the pursuit of greed offers a powerful message about conservationism but ultimately loses itself in the middle as the film loses track of what it wants to be. Nevertheless, like any other Nicolas Cage film, he fully commits to his role here and delivers a stellar commanding lead performance as a character who is just so cool. Ultimately, the film’s parts outweigh their sum as its look and performances aren’t quite enough to save it from being dull as audiences will undoubtedly find themselves waiting for something more that never comes.

Based on the book of the same name by John Williams, Butcher’s Crossing follows a Harvard drop-out named Will Andrews (Hechinger) who in an attempt to see the rest of the United States, travels to the Colorado wilderness with a team of buffalo hunters led by a hunter named Miller (Cage) on the hunt for a legendary haul that could possibly fetch them a fortune and put Miller’s name on the map and proving his doubters wrong. However, that journey proved to be more than they bargained for as it put everyone’s sanity and wellbeing to the test in the face of treacherous terrain and changing seasons, putting all their faith in Miller for better or worse. Faced with plenty of adversity, the team’s journey became less about buffalo pelts and more about survival, a prospect which wasn’t necessarily a sure thing. Creating the potential for lots of tension, the film unfortunately did next to nothing with it as the characters’ near and immediate futures were at risk. Becoming dull, any overarching message will surely be lost upon most audiences.

At the end of the day, the best part of Butcher’s Crossing and what keeps the film watchable is its performances. Cage does more than enough in delivering another strong performance that makes the most out of what he had to work with. Perhaps this was never the kind of film that was going to deliver much in the way of depth but more would have been nice here. Hechinger makes for a decent counterbalance to Miller and guide for audiences while his solid chemistry with Cage results in a fun dynamic.

Butcher’s Crossing won’t set the world on fire by any means and will mostly appeal to Cage and/or western fans for which there are still a lot.

*still courtesy of TIFF

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.