Writer-director Brett William Mauser’s Lady Outlaw tells the story of Dunn (Lisa Butala), a young girl who loves the wide-open spaces as she travels and cooks for a gang of outlaws, one of whom is her brother. The outlaws see her merely as a woman, but Dunn longs to be viewed as an equal. She is despised and denigrated by the gang members, as they constantly tell her that she lacks the true grit to live an outlaw’s treacherous and rugged existence.
After failing to provide an adequate meal and with the law now breathing down the gang’s neck following a recent robbery, Dunn is humiliated to the point she decides to leave. On a supply run to a town before the gang heads off home to wait for things to cool, Dunn is drawn into a gunfight between a w***e named Ellie (Nicole Mattox) and her estranged husband, who took off with the woman’s $300. The argument ends in bloodshed, and Dunn aids in Ellie’s escape. So, with a posse chasing her and her new friend, who is wanted for murder, she returns to inform the gang of the situation. They get on their horses and head off in different directions, all bound for their rendezvous point, the town of Ingalls.
“… a posse chasing her and her new friend, who is wanted for murder…”
The cast of Lady Outlaw is a bit of a mixed bag. Butala, Ellie, and Christoper Henry (as George, an outlaw who helps the ladies), by far and away, give standout performances and deliver the required drama and intensity. The surrounding players, on the other hand, are neither memorable nor as menacing as they need to be, considering many of them are supposed to be fearsome lawbreakers. The one exception is Wes Gillum as Marshal Hixon, as his slender yet sinister portrayal brings to mind Pat Garrett by way of The Undertaker (from the WWE). Hixon is a criminally underused character.
Mauser proficiently writes and directs the film. The editing and score keep the energy up during a few sequences that drag on. A major distraction lies in the patchwork cinematography of this picture, which jumps around as far as quality is concerned. While some scenes that are captured with natural light look incredible, they are combined with others that are either over or underexposed. This impacts the movie in specific sequences, especially those involving pressure and deep emotion. Still, Lady Outlaw is a solid oater that delivers surprises whilst still playing all the right notes on those tried-and-true tropes.
For more information about Lady Outlaw, visit the Not So Sane Films site.
"…a solid oater that delivers surprises..."
