Review of Deidra & Laney Rob a Train

So this is the set up. At or near the beginning of the film, the mother of the protagonists (Deidra and Laney) is seen in the store where she works, is holding a TV above her head threatening to throw it on to the floor. She then throws said TV on to the floor, smashing it to pieces. Needless to say, she is sacked, prosecuted and ends up in jail hoping that someone can bail her out. This leaves Deidra and Laney without any means of financial support and parental guidance. So they come up with this bright idea. "Let's rob a train". So they do. So far, so far-fetched. And then there was a line said by a social worker which went something like: If you can't show financial support, then your sibling is gone". Really? I don' think any social worker would speak to someone like that, not without getting some kind of disciplinary action taken against them anyway. In fact the whole film plays out in the usual type of dialogue and demeanour for which American films are famous for.

We find out that one of the investigators is corrupt, though I didn't quite understand how.

The proceeds from the train robbery were used to bail their mother out. The corrupt officer was bought to book. The perpetrators however, were not.

This film was in the hidden gems section of Netflix who actually made the film. This is a message to their management: A gem can be a film from: Bergman, Kurosawa, or Varda for example. It doesn't always even have to be foreign films. There are plenty of English language films that are gems, even from America. But this is most certainly not one of them.