Based on the novel Desert Stake-Out by Harry Whittington, this slow-burn western set in 1872’s Arizona gets plenty right, but has a tendency to plod where it could have giddy-ed up. Our hero is one Merrick Beckford, played by Myles Clohessy (son of character actor Robert Clohessy), who has been entrusted by William H Macy (in a single-scene cameo) with a wagonload of medical supplies in need of a courier.
Along the way, Merrick encounters a father-son duo, Mule (Thomas Jane) and Billy (Ryan Masson), a wrong ’un called Edmund (Armie Hammer, appearing on screen for the first time since 2022’s Death on the Nile), and a wounded husband (Eli Brown) and defenceless wife (Mary Stickley). As obvious weak link Billy, Masson is particularly good; poor decision-making feels written into his physicality and way of being in the world, and you’re just waiting to see how this weird little guy is going to mess up.
