Directed by Francis Lawrence
Starring Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Garrett Wareing, Tut Nyuot, Charlie Plummer, Ben Wang, Roman Griffin Davis, Jordan Gonzalez, Josh Hamilton, Judy Greer, and Mark Hamill.
A group of teenage boys compete in an annual contest known as ⁘The Long Walk,⁘ where they must maintain a certain walking speed or get shot.
Not far behind him in the pacing and acting stakes is Cooper Hoffman ( Liquorice Pizza ), who's our primary companion on this journey. As Raymond Garraty, or contestant #47, we enter this story through his eyes. Dropped off at the start line by his distraught mother (the perennially excellent Judy Greer), his affable nature finds him making friends with those who'll be at the head of the pack for the film; Jonsson's Peter McVries #23, Ben Wang's Hank Olsen #46, and Tut Nyuot's Arthur Baker #6.
If they are to act as this film's Stand by Me quartet, then you also get Garret Wareing's cold-hearted Stebbins #38 and Charlie Plummer's obnoxious Gary Barkovitch #5 as the archetypal King protagonists, as-well-as plenty of other peripheral numbers who act as The Long Walk 's red jackets.
Structured in a way that means the narrative focus very rarely shifts from the young men marching towards the camera, aside from a couple of brief flashbacks, the frame is dominated by Hoffman and Jonsson, who carry each other and the film towards a gruelling conclusion. The former is likeable from the first few steps.
An everyman who's rooted for by the few stragglers who morbidly line the road, Hoffman imbues him with this underlying ambiguity that helps to serve both the motivation of the character, and also plays brilliantly into making you wonder how far he'd truly go.
That's all tied up in his believable comradery with Jonsson, who undoubtedly owns the film, and in doing so delivers one of the year's most affecting performances.
He commands your attention with a turn of humour, intrigue and overriding empathy. The fact that the final twenty minutes is as agonising and moving as it is, can be laid firmly at the bruised and battered feet of this truly captivating young actor.
