Dead Man's Wire

Director: Gus Van Sant
Starring: Bill Skarsgård, Dacre Montgomery, Cary Elwes, Myha'la, Colman Domingo, Al Pacino, John Robinson, Kelly Lynch, Todd Gable
Running Time: 106 min.
Rating: R

★★★ (out of ★★★★)   

During Gus Van Sant's biographical crime thriller Dead Man's Wire, a voiceover declares that holding onto anger is the equivalent of drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. But by film's end, we're left wondering whether that's true or the real life antagonist actually did get the satisfaction he sought. Eerily prescient, it focuses on this man with a grudge and the extreme measures he takes against those he thinks wronged him. And though his intended victim isn't around for the consequences, he finds a suitable replacement, leading to an unusual standoff that sends the cops and media into a frenzy. 

Initially, the police want this abductor to feel as if he's receiving the attention he so desperately craves, hoping he'll drop his guard long enough for them to go in for the kill. But what happens when the public chooses to view him as a sympathetic figure screwed over by a soulless corporation? With a compelling tale like his, it's no surprise many can relate, enabling them to somehow see past whatever violence he's capable of, as scary as that seems.    

On Tuesday, February 8th, 1977 in Indianapolis, a high strung, mustachioed man named Tony Kiritsis (Bill Skarsgård) arrives at the Meridian Mortage Company building for an appointment with CEO M.L. Hall (Al Pacino). Entering with a sling on his arm and a long box, an agitated Tony makes a scene when informed M.L. is vacationing in Florida. His son and company President Richard (Dacre Montgomery) intervenes, agreeing to meet with him. But once inside the office, Tony removes a shotgun from the box, wiring it to Richard's neck and rigging it to fire should he attempt to escape. 

Believing the Halls cheated him out of money on a land development deal, Tony calls this abduction into the police himself, hoping to expose the Halls. With a wire wrapped around his neck, Richard's taken out of the building and onto the street by Tony, attracting the attention of Detective Michael Grable (Cary Elwes) and TV news reporter Linda Page (Myha'la), who's looking to raise her profile with a big story. As the FBI closes in and Richard's life hangs in the balance, Tony uses local radio DJ Fred Temple (Colman Domingo) to send his message to the masses. But with time running out, he wants money and an apology, or the shotgun goes off.

Aside from Skarsgård's genuinely unsettling performance and a remarkable sense of time and place, the film's greatest asset is how quickly it gets down to business, letting the smaller details pour out as this situation escalates. From the start, there's something off enough about this guy that the pressure's on to give him what he wants, or at least make him think he's getting it. It's also intriguing to watch these opening office scenes with the knowledge that Tony would have been immediately tackled at the front door if this occurred today. But it's the 70's, establishing him as just another irritated client on a Tuesday. 

Viewed through a pre-9/11 lens with no security cams, it's easier to see how Tony pulls this off, his unusual shotgun contraption throwing off authorities as they proceed with heightened caution. All of this gives Tony time to lay out his terms and milk the public's attention while a terrified Richard suffers through the ordeal, his life potentially ending with one sudden move in the wrong direction. 

Montgomery's performance conveys a thinly layered sense of guilt that Richard and his father really screwed this man out of his cash since that's what this company does. Pacino's big scene as M.L. confirms just how little respect he has for his own son, who's essentially a subservient hatchet man. Even with Richard's life on the line, the elder Hall proves too stubborn and entitled to give an inch, frustrating both Tony and the FBI. Pacino's subtle here, never hamming it up as his character comes across completely unaffected and incapable of relinquishing control. 

While Van Sant gets a little heavy handed as he flashes back and forth between TV broadcast recreations and the actual action, tension remains at a fever pitch throughout, delivered in a style intentionally reminiscent of Pacino's Serpico and Dog Day Afternoon. A menacing, unhinged Skarsgård exudes false bravado as the walls close in on Tony, who still plans to walk away scot-free. Domingo also impresses with a nuanced, charismatic turn as the radio DJ caught in the middle of these volatile negotiations. As the only person Tony trusts, if not flat-out idolizes, you'd think using him as a liaison would give the FBI an advantage. And for a while, it does.  

Logic dictates Tony can't get away with this, but his belief he will is what makes him dangerous. The closing title cards revealing the fates of those involved are legitimately surprising, as is the real news footage that appears over the credits. But by depicting the genesis of similar events we'll see play out over the following decades, Dead Man's Wire shows just how easily criminals become celebrities. And while they continue to bask in that adulation and exposure, it still still says as much about us as them.                  

Better Watch Out (2017)

Director: Chris Peckover
Starring: Olivia DeJonge, Levi Miller, Ed Oxenbould, Aleks Mikic, Dacre Montgomery, Patrick Warburton, Virginia Madsen
Running Time: 89 min.
Rating: R

★★★ (out of ★★★★) 

**PLOT SPOILERS FOLLOW**

The Chistmas-themed horror movie has long become an annual viewing fixture dating all the way back to 1974's Black Christmas, sometimes with mixed results. That originator of the sub-genre (which heavily inspired Carpenter's Halloween) has since been remade twice, speaking less to its effectiveness than Hollywood's penchant for beating a great idea into the ground. But luckily, the yuletide horror entries have been spread out enough through the decades that when a really good one does arrive, it can make an impact, feeling comfortably familiar enough to remind us how it's supposed to be done. Unfortunately, the same can't be as frequently said for home invasion thrillers, the other sub-genre with which it all too frequently overlaps. 

Relief comes in the form of Chris Peckover's Better Watch Out, which combines the two genres for a far better than expected psychological excursion that puts an intriguing spin on what could have been very standard material. In fact, we know that since it seems as if every other week brings the latest V.O.D. home invasion dissapointment this looked like it could have been from its trailers and commercials. Instead, we get a clever send-up that manages to flip the script and deliver what could potentially be re-watched and appreciated as one of the stronger holiday-themed thrillers in a while. 

With Christmas right around the corner, 17-year-old Ashley (Olivia DeJonge) is babysitting 12-year-old Luke Lerner (Levi Miller), who's looking forward to his parents (Virginia Madsen and Patrick Warbuton) leaving them for a night on the town since he's had a crush on her for years. Proudly announcing his intentions to make a move on her to departing best friend Garrett (Ed Oxenbould), Ashley and Luke are left alone in the house when strange noises, broken windows and other mysterious goings on outside hint that an intruder got in. This is only partially true, as the masked man is actually a returning Garrett, revealed as part of Luke's outrageous scenario to impress a thoroughly unimpressed and disgusted Ashley. With his friend's very reluctant help, Luke must now abruptly change course, and in doing so, traps his babysitter in a diabolically twisted cat-and-mouse game that tests her mental and physical resiliance, while revealing the true depths of his depravity. 

Peckover cleverly sets our expectations for one very specific type of film all while building the foundation to give us an entirely different one. That starts with the two main characters who you could easily imagine in an '80's or 90's teen movie as the popular, promiscuous girl and the too clever, wisecracking nerdy tween she's babysitting who hopelessly pines after her. Ignoring the fact that this kid seems entirely too old to have a babysitter at all and the friends' interaction at the start hint that Luke's intentions may be less innocent than perceived, Zack Kahn's script does a commendable job challenging any other preconceptions. 

As the story and situation builds momentum, it's obvious Luke is far more messed up than either Ashley, Garrett or even a pair of Ashley's flawed boyfriends (played by Aleka Mikec and Stranger Things' Dacre Montgomery) have given him credit for. Like a junior Patrick Batman in training, he oftens feigns remorse while concocting various tricks to dispose of any evidence of his escalating crimes, including people. Levi Miller really gets under your skin as Luke, partially due to us not being used to seeing a kid this age lead the charge as a sociopathic home invader and he's just irritatingly snide and arrogant enough that we can't wait to see him to get his comeuppance, assuming it ever comes. 

The instances Luke should clearly be overpowered by his victims are well handled by a script that emphasizes his intellect over physicality. Noticeably more concerned with his parents finding him out than being brought up on murder, assault or kidnapping charges, his simplistic explanation that he's an unloved only child hints at serious mental illness, though his actions do a better job at confirming it. The screenplay leans heavily into this notion with all the subtlty of a swinging paint can to the head. 

While Miller excels at playing this emotionally stunted monster, Australian actress Olivia DeJonge (most recently seen in Netflix's The Society) is definitely a future talent to watch as Ashley, excelling as the determined victim, believably transitioning from sheer outrage and disbelief at what this kid's doing to survival mode, proving he doesn't have the market cornered on playing head games. We get an immediate sense she's a fighter and that quality goes into overdrive when he uses her rejection of him as the ultimate fuel for his worst impulses. You have to wonder where he thinks this whole thing will go, but as his grip on the situation begins slipping, a power struggle ensues.   

The setting and atmosphere are huge details that most other entires in the holiday horror genre tend to frequently fall short on. There's absolutely no question what time of the year it is here, nailing the music, cinematography, set and wardrobe design, likely increasing the rewatchability factor of a movie that may not have been revisited on the strength its plot alone. Though its worth noting its ending is pretty much perfect, at least within the context of this universe Peckover creates for these two characters over the course of an extremely tight 90 minutes. Besides it being what we want as viewers, it's called for in terms of the story, and delivered with a sarcastically satisfying final shot. No explanation needed, except the look of stunned silence on the antagonist's face that maybe everything didn't quite go exactly as planned.   

Slyly funny and subversive, with a pair of strong performances carrying it, you wonder how Bettter Watch Out managed to fly under the radar despite its relatively favorable notices. But with no hint this was going to be anything other than your creepy, run-of-the-mill holiday home invasion thriller, it's at least somewhat easier to see why. especially in an overcrowded market full of similar titles. This twisted tale doesn't really resemble them, standing out by crossing Home Alone-like hijinx with a nightmarish version of Adventures in Babysitting, made only that much stronger by fully exploiting its premise and setting right up to and including the final credits.