God is a Bullet ★★★½

AROUND 20 years ago I read a terrific book called God Is a Bullet by Boston Teran.

It was the American author’s first novel, a brutal and nihilistic thriller about a father searching for the people who killed his wife and kidnapped his daughter.

Apart from the drama driving the narrative, it featured wonderful dialogue from memorable characters and visceral descriptions of action and violence.

Teran has gone to write around 20 books but only two have been adapted for the screen, the latest being God Is a Bullet in 2023.

The result is wildly uneven, at times brilliant and exciting, at others muddled and meandering, but that’s not surprising when you’re dealing with source material that balanced all its disparate and challenging elements so well.

The director is Nick Cassavetes, son of the legendary actor and director John, who has made an eclectic mix of films to date.

While Cassavetes wrestles to bring everything together, he does an excellent job with the depictions of sudden and overwhelming violence.

But the material is best served by the principal cast – Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Detective Bob Hightower, Maika Monroe as a former cult member who helps Hightower in his search, Jamie Foxx, almost unrecognisable as the mysterious gun runner Ferryman and Karl Glusman as the manic cult leader Cyrus.

The version we are seeing in Australia is two hours long. That may be enough for most viewers, but I will definitely be searching out the international version with an additional half hour.