Starring an impressive Bella Thorne and an in-form Mickey Rourke, Girl is a dark modern-day western that writer and director Chad Faust injects with gritty character and strong sense of place.

Key to the western is setting, and Girl has a doozy of a place. Named the “County of Golden” it is anything but. A cold and desolate place, when one character describes it as a town with “something broken” to its spirit, they were not kidding.

This is where we find the simply named Girl (Bella Thorne), an outsider who literally has an axe to grind in the form of a hatchet that she intends to bury in her estranged, abusive father. Problem is her lust is denied (axe-blocked, if you will) when she finds dear-old-dad tortured and murdered. Compelled to find out who killed her father and why, Girl’s trail leads to Sheriff (Mickey Rourke) and Charmer (Chad Faust), brothers who have the town in a vice grip.

What follows is an incredibly tense, character driven journey where the threat of violence lurks at every turn, and the ghosts of the past haunt the streets of a town broken and removed from God’s grace.

Writer and director Chad Faust (who also stars in the film) impresses with his feature debut, delivering a grit-filled and highly engrossing modern day take on western conventions, that while admittedly not unique in its ideas, is never the less compelling in its dramatic heft. There is a moral and even spiritual weight to Girl that is felt throughout its 92 minute runtime, a story not only about the absence of a father in a young woman’s life, but the absence of God from a town thrusted into violence and corruption. Shot in 15 days, it is indeed impressive work by Faust.

Excellent too are the performances. Bella Thorne is terrific in the title role, bringing an emotional weight along with a ferocious, scrappy physicalness to her role as a young woman seeking to fill a hole in her heart that is bloody and raw. Mickey Rourke compliments with an intimidating turn as the town sheriff corrupted to the pit of his soul. With gargled southern drawl and methodical swagger, Rourke plays the role of death walking with a scary precision that reminds of the talented actor that he is.

Faust thankfully strays away from going down the road of exploitation to deliver something more real and complex, with Girl a modern-day western of grit and character that hits its mark with ferocious precision.