A seemingly perfect couple’s new life in California is corrupted by a schoolmate of the husband. A superior psychological thriller, with writer-director-star Edgerton capably balancing both genre expectations and fresh ideas. Much to appreciate, and to make Edgerton one to watch.
Tag: Joel Edgerton
The Thing (2011, dir. Matthijs van Heijningen Jr)
Members of a Norwegian Antarctic research base find an alien specimen. Prequel/remake of the 1982 John Carpenter-directed movie. Okay as far as it goes, but perfunctory plotting and reliance on CG over practical effects mean this doesn’t really compare, despite good efforts from the cast.
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Zero Dark Thirty (2012, dir. Kathryn Bigelow)
A dramatisation of the hunt for and killing of Osama Bin Laden. Sober and focused, with an eye for detail and on the selling of its version of events as truth through the use of faux documentary techniques, this works as an intelligent thriller throughout.
Red Sparrow (2018, dir. Francis Lawrence)
A Russian ballerina is recruited by her uncle into an elite spy training programme. Good-looking but deathly slow melodrama which pretends the Cold War is ongoing. Plenty of solid character actors with silly accents in European cities doing double-crosses.
It Comes At Night (2017, dir. Trey Edward Schults)
A family hides in the woods after a disease outbreak. Sombre and effective post-apocalyptic horror, more focused on survivors’ paranoia than on raging zombies and the like.
Bright (2017, dir. David Ayer)
A veteran LA cop partners with the first orc officer; they find themselves in the middle of an ancient magic war. While the procedural and mismatched partners stuff is great, Bright is saddled with too much backstory and a daft third act. Feels like a big-budget TV series pilot.
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