Jon Watts wrote and directed this crime thriller with buddy overtones that shines with the banter and chemistry with its two stars, George Clooney and Brad Pitt. The two leading men play fixers who are summoned to a hotel, Margaret’s (Amy Ryan, who I always delight in seeing, she’s wonderful) Man (Clooney) is summoned by…
Tag: thriller
Forever and a Death (2017) – Donald E. Westlake
Back in the late 90s, acclaimed author Donald E. Westlake was asked to make an attempt at the story for the next James Bond film, landing solidly in the Pierce Brosnan era. Complications ensued, and it never happened. The story, Forever and a Death was finally unveiled in 2017, posthumously becoming the last book Westlake…
Firefox (1977) – Craig Thomas
I remember seeing Clint Eastwood’s Firefox when it hit the theaters back in 1982. It was one of the first films I was able to go see on my own. I also remember seeing the novel, with the movie cover in the local book stores. Some forty odd years later, I decided that it’s time…
Mandy (2018) – Panos Cosmatos
Nicolas Cage headlines in Mandy, a drug-addled hallucinogenic ride in this revenge horror (?) thriller. Set in the early 80s, but filled with 70s sensibilities in sense of style and set design, Cage is Red Miller who lives out in the woods with Mandy Bloom (Andrea Riseborough). They have a quiet life, he works is…
A House of Dynamite (2025) – Kathryn Bigelow
Kathryn Bigelow has been a fave director of mine since Near Dark. And with A House of Dynamite, she continues to prove that not only is she a fantastic director, she should be a bigger deal than she is. Taking a political/techno-thriller concept and putting a human face on it, as this film does, makes…
The First Power (1990) – Robert Resnikoff
I did Lou Diamond Phillips, and somewhere in Robert Resnikoff’s The First Power is a solid supernatural police thriller. But everything in it is painfully familiar, though some of it, like the visions characters have are strongly created. Phillips is Russell Logan a Los Angeles homicide cop who has been tracking a serial murderer christened…
Dead of Winter (2025) – Brian Kirk
Emma Thompson stars in this white-knuckle thriller that features a layered performance, and some stand-out moments. With Finland standing in for Minnesota, Thompson braves the cold as Barb who sets out for Lake Hilda for personal reasons. A goodbye needs to be made. Along the way, she has an unnerving encounter with a man in…
TIFF 25: Fuze dir. David Mackenzie
The one thing that I came out of Fuze knowing for sure is that this is the first time I’ve seen Aaron Taylor-Johnson in a role where I thought, yes, I can see this fella playing 007. Now, it hasn’t been announced he is, or anything of the sort, but I’m saying what I saw…
TIFF 25: Retreat dir. Ted Evans
Ted Evans wrote and directed this engaging thriller that takes us inside the lives of Eva (Anne Zander) and Matt (James Joseph Boyle) when Eva joins Matt and a collection of deaf people living at a residence they know as Chilmark. Under the watchful eye, and guidance of Mia (Sophie Stone), the residents are establishing…
TIFF 25: Bad Apples dir. Jonatan Etzler
Saoirse Ronan shines as Maria, an elementary school teacher pushed too far in Jonatan Etzler’s darkly funny thriller, Bad Apples. If you’ve read the tagline for the film, do yourself a favour and don’t read anything else about it. Go in with the knowledge that Maria is working to keep her class engaged. She has…
The Mind Reels 