In this road movie, Chloe Grace Moretz plays a teenager running away from her rough home life believing she's destined for a better life. She goes on the road encountering a bunch of horrible characters and various unpleasant things happen. That's sort of it. Hick is a movie few have seen and one which critics seem to loath. The 5% rating on Rotten Tomatoes is a little unfair, but this isn't a great movie. It's a watchable one however, and due to the quality of the acting it took me half the movie to realize it was genuinely pretty poor. Without the acting and direction this would be a cast iron flop. In her most underrated performance, Chloe Grace Moretz is fantastic as the main character, and the rest of the cast are surprisingly good as well. It's also a talented director, as the cinematography and direction is unexpectedly skilled. Derick Martini seems to be an independent director who hasn't got lucky. Unfortunately, he, Chloe Grace Moretz,, Eddie Redmayne and all the others are stuck with a script which doesn't deserve any of them.

Hick is a totally pointless film if there ever was one. Nothing much happens and the objective to get to Las Vegas is forgotten very quickly. Random unpleasant events happen, but there's no message or meaning to it at all. It's mildly well done, but it's unpleasant without purpose. It at times feels like a collage of road movie conventions rendered in the ugliest way imaginable. The script, although it has some inspired lines, is pretty terrible. As there's no real point the film feels slight and forgettable as a result, and there will be few who even know it exists. There is a good scene where the main character talks about her dead brother which is surprisingly moving. The acting is fine all around, and the film proves child actors don't (always) deserve the hate. However, it just doesn't add up to anything or go anywhere and this road movie is like a broken down bus on the highway that isn't going anywhere. By the end, Moretz's protagonist hasn't learned anything. And neither have we.

4/10