Allegory

noun

"a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one."

"a story in which the characters and events are symbols that stand for ideas about human life or for a political or historical situation"
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Viewing this film in this light removes it from the categorization the usual reviewers seem to need to measure it against. If you look beyond those, I think you'll see a little masterpiece, here.

This is a story about the means to control by force of violence, symbolized by the 'Cop Car', without possessing the human wherewithal necessary to manage it.

Sheriff Kretzer, lacking morality, has been using the car for his own nefarious purpose, and the renegade boys, lacking maturity, find the car an "awesome" entertainment, like a video game.

From the opening scene, in which the one boy initiates the other in the means of verbal violence possibly used on him at home and likely prompting his escape. This recitation of curse words in dialogue between the two boys is like verbal graffiti spoiling the peace and innocence of the bright pastoral backdrop they traverse. The one may have only an inkling of the meaning, but the other has some experience of the words' power.

For these two, it's out of the verbal frying pan into the actual line of fire, out of playing the "Mario" car in safety of their video games, into playing in the Cop Car in the danger of real world and learning a painful lesson in the difference.

*Danny's not here, Mrs. Torrance*