Those who hesitate to get their driver’s license because they view cars as a weapon first and a mode of transportation second will feel validated by Shawn Simmons’ Eenie Meanie. Simmons’ high-octane film focuses on a former getaway driver named Edie (Samara Weaving), who’s pulled back onto a road of crime she thought she had exited. Simmons understands the inherent excitement of seeing a car as an instrument of chaos, putting vehicles in places where they shouldn’t be (the lawns of high-rise buildings, the halls of a casino) and watching his characters react to this obstruction in real time. Eenie Meanie operates best when it embraces the mayhem of its vehicular set pieces, but tonal whiplash and hollow characterization off-road the film too many times for it to get fully back on track.
Eenie Meanie
3
/5
- Release Date
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August 22, 2025
- Director
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Shawn Simmons
- Writers
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Shawn Simmons
When we meet Edie, she’s trying to stay on the straight and narrow. We first get a sense that there’s more to her than her bright smile and chipper spirit when she and her co-workers are held at gunpoint at the bank where she works; she complies with the robbers but maintains a steely resolve, eying a distracted assailant’s handgun. Before Edie can grab the weapon, however, she’s knocked out. When she wakes up in the hospital, she’s told she hasn’t suffered any lasting injuries, but her diagnosis comes with a new revelation: she’s pregnant.
Deducing that the father is her ex, John (Karl Glusman), she goes to tell him the news. Stepping into his apartment, she fights back against surprise attackers sent by Nico (Andy Garcia), a mobster for whom Edie and John used to work. The perennially clumsy and careless John owes Nico a debt of $3 million, to be paid expediently lest John wants to have his skeleton “pulled through his skin by a Haitian guy who does it for cheap,” (Garcia makes the most out of his minor role, delivering tough-guy dialogue with sardonic glee.) Edie reluctantly agrees to help John, and the duo are recruited to steal a Dodge Charger Scat Pack from a casino that’s filled with $3 million.
Simmons seems acutely aware that his cast is gorgeous, his set pieces are riotous, and his direction is propulsive. And that confidence is what makes Eenie Meanie so cinematic. It’s invigorating to see a streaming movie walk with the swagger of a theatrical one, and the film’s standout set piece, in which Edie and her crew manage to steal the display Dodge, has a cantankerousness that only comes from practical effects. Eenie Meanie is propelled by its escalating audaciousness: As Edie races through the halls, trying to wrangle the Dodge as if it’s a rabid beast, you can’t help but surrender to the anarchy as the casino devolves into a flurry of flying hubcaps, shattered glass and dented slot machines. DP Tim Ives takes extra care to showcase Weaving and Marshawn Lynch (who plays rival driver Perm Walters) in the driver’s seat during the action set pieces, as if to erase any doubt that these actors weren’t doing their own driving stunts.
If the film were a sizzle reel of electrifying antics, that would be enough. But alas, a movie is more than its most kinetic action beats. Simmons’ more somber narrative always seems in tension with the spectacle he wants to deliver, and this comes down to characterization. In a scene immediately before Edie steals the car, she breaks her burner phone and throws it into a vacant pitcher of beer while Bobby Krlic’s epic rock ‘n’ roll score blasts around her. It’s an undeniably badass moment, but given that we just watched a scene where the characters stress the importance of being discreet, the moment makes Edie seem incompetent rather than cool. That’s not to say multiple tones can’t coexist, but Simmons never finds a way to make the thrilling work with the compelling. It’s a shame, too, because there’s a lot under Eenie Meanie’s hood thematically, namely the ways that the people who claim to love us are the ones capable of inflicting the most emotional damage.
Edie wrestles with whether she really loves John or is simply running into a relationship that feels comfortable, questioning what she owes to him in her process of growth and transformation. Weaving has an expressive face, which has been her greatest strength in everything from rom-coms to post-apocalyptic thrillers. Her characters wear their convictions and confidence plainly, and Edie is no exception. Meanwhile, Glusman plays John as well-meaning but myopic, unaware of the ripple effects of his rash actions. John is unchanging and stubborn, but still worthy of viewers’ sympathy; he acts as a compelling foil for Weaving’s Edie, who questions whether her dream of a better life can include someone like him.
This film could have either been a gritty, character-driven story or a pulpy, ostentatious blockbuster, and Eenie Meanie sputters when it tries to have it both ways. More often than not, it straddles the middle lane, which makes it nothing more than a diverting summer treat. You won’t miss much if you keep driving, but it’s nice to pause at a rest stop once in a while.
Eenie Meanie premieres August 22nd on Hulu.
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