Taylor Sheridan's forgotten crime thriller is the best thing you're not watching

Taylor Sheridan – you know, the bloke who can’t seem to switch off his work ethic, king of modern neo-Westerns and the Yellowstone empire – has a track record that’s much more uneven than most telly or film publications seem willing to admit. Let’s talk numbers for a moment: Sicario, Wind River and Hell or High Water? All solid hits, all came out before he launched Yellowstone on TV. Now, every film with his name attached since he turned predominantly to the small screen has flopped or sunk without trace. If you caught Without Remorse with Michael B. Jordan, you probably regret it – critics hated it – and Those Who Wish Me Dead (Angelina Jolie, survival, Montana, one forest fire too many) made just $23 million, which is loose change by Hollywood standards.

There are, sadly, even more red flags if you’re holding out hope for Sheridan’s rumoured Call of Duty movie; video game adaptations, as a genre, are about as reliable as a British summer. And yet, amongst these recent duds, there’s one effort that genuinely deserved better: 2023’s Finestkind. Hardly anyone talked about it, but honestly, you could do far worse for your evening’s entertainment.

'Finestkind': Scallop Boats, Dodgy Deals, and Sheridan's Signature Grit

Here’s the setup. Finestkind is produced by Sheridan (though not directed by him – that’s Brian Helgeland, who wrote L.A. Confidential). We meet Charlie (Toby Wallace), a uni-educated young bloke at a loose end, and Tom (Ben Foster), his half-brother, who’s chosen the saltier life of scallop fishing off the New England coast. Charlie wants a bit of meaning in his life, tags along on Tom’s next outing, and – no surprises – everything goes sideways when their fishing boat gets seized by the authorities. Suddenly they’re on the hook for a hefty fine.

Enter Mabel (Jenna Ortega, adding serious indie-cred), who pulls Charlie into a drug-running gig to fix their woes. As you’d expect, the universe isn’t done piling on. Their dad, Ray (Tommy Lee Jones – always reliable, always slightly terrifying), gets dealt a death sentence in the form of terminal stomach cancer.

If that all sounds extremely bleak, you’d be right. But what the film does – and this bit is vintage Sheridan – is dig into what happens when life’s given you nothing but bad luck for your honesty. Sooner or later, that bruised moral compass starts pointing towards crime because, frankly, what’s left to lose? The real stand-out here is the “crime-by-desperation” theme: similar to what we saw in Hell or High Water (two brothers rob banks so the bank can’t rob them) and more recently Landman. These are people being squeezed until legality is a luxury they can’t afford.

Finestkind keeps you guessing right until the end, too. You start wondering: Who’s going to get grassed up? Who’s going to bottle it and talk? The tension holds up in a way most run-of-the-mill crime flicks simply can’t manage.

Plenty of Drama – And Not Just On Screen

It wouldn’t be a Sheridan-linked production without some absolute chaos behind the scenes. There’s his ongoing saga with Kevin Costner that turbocharged Costner’s Yellowstone exit, and tales of various fallings-out with showrunners (he binned Terence Winter from Tulsa King, axed Chad Feshan after one season on Dutton Ranch, and sacked the entire writers' room from Lioness – just decided to do it himself).

This one, though, wasn’t Sheridan’s drama. Instead, the headache came from a pretty grisly workplace accident and a bit of financial shadiness. Paul Charbonnet, who served as cinematographer, told local press that he never received the $25,000 he was promised. He also describes a moment when a home-made underwater camera housing exploded during a pressure test, badly injuring crew member Patrick Ostlund’s leg (Ostlund confirmed the story himself). Charbonnet says he ended up suing Rhoda Street Studios for his pay, but the company just filed for bankruptcy and disappeared. Sheridan’s own outfits – SGS Studios, 101 Studios – weren’t fingered as responsible here, so in this rare case, he seems clear of any blame. But it’s a shambles regardless.

The production woes add insult to injury given how little noise the film made upon release, which is a shame, because it punches above its weight. And here’s a strange bit of Hollywood backstory: Brian Helgeland wrote the script back in the 1980s. Years later, he nearly made the film with Heath Ledger. That never happened, for tragic reasons. He’s since floated the script to Jake Gyllenhaal and Zendaya, neither of whom signed on. Only after decades of attempts, and with a revolving door of producers, did Finestkind get made.

Cast

• Toby Wallace as Charlie
• Ben Foster as Tom
• Jenna Ortega as Mabel
• Tommy Lee Jones as Ray
• A mix of supporting players rounding out the small-town villainy and desperation

As Paul Charbonnet put it to New Bedford Guide:
"I never got paid, and I saw someone’s leg basically get blown open – I wouldn’t recommend the job.”