First off, let’s get this out of the way… the onscreen friendship and chemistry of Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena is absolutely fantastic. The pair are absolutely fantastic together as a pair of friends who serve together in the LAPD. The film is predominantly shot to look and feel like a documentary; Brian Taylor (Gyllenhaal)…
Tag: white knuckle
Zodiac (2007) – David Fincher
David Fincher delivers a dark and in-depth exploration of the Zodiac Killer investigation, and he does it with his usual style and powerhouse actors. Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., and Mark Ruffalo star as a reporter, a cartoonist, and a cop, respectively, all of whom were involved in the investigation. Fincher recreates the horrific killings…
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…
Weapons (2025) – Zach Cregger
Much like Cregger’s previous film, Barbarian, it’s best to go into this film for the first time with no real knowledge beyond what is provided by the poster… one night, almost all the kids from a single classroom disappeared. What happened? That’s the initial launching point for a story that shifts narratives and fractures fairy…
47 Meters Down (2017) – Johannes Roberts
Mandy Moore and Claire Holt star in 47 Meters Down a fairly well-realized white-knuckle thriller from Johannes Roberts. Whatever you think of the concept of the story, a pair of sisters stuck 47 meters down in shark-infested waters, Roberts is able to tap into some very primal fears, add in some solid visual effects work…
TIFF ’22: Hunt
South Korean action star Lee Jung-jae makes his directorial debut with the brilliant action thriller, Hunt. Set in the 1980s when tensions were heightened between North and South Korea, the film is a white knuckle ride that sees two government rivals, KCIA Foreign Unit chief Park (Lee) and Domestic Unit head Kim (Jung Woo-sung) working…
Road of Bones (2022) – Christopher Golden
Christopher Golden delivers another white knuckle horror thriller with Road of Bones. The tale is set in Russia, on an actual stretch of road known as the Road of Bones and the story follows Teig and Prentiss. Teig is an idea man. He thinks he has an idea for the next big reality show that…
Don’t Breathe (2016) – Fede Alvarez
I was pleasantly surprised by Don’t Breathe, though I didn’t like a single character in the film. They’re all evil in their way, and that made it hard to empathize. In fact, for the first part of the film, I sympathize with the Blind Man (Stephen Lang), until that twist of course. But it’s interesting…
TIFF 2021: The Rescue dir. E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin
2018. Thailand. The world was watching. Documentary filmmakers Vasarhelyi and Chin takes us back and put us in the caves that trapped twelve boys, who formed the Wild Boars football team, and their coach for almost three weeks. Volunteers and aid came from the world over, descending on the country to help the Thai’s Navy…
The Anomaly (2018) – Micheal Rutger
I stumbled across the name of this book on a search for something fun and scary to read. Intrigued by the idea, I snapped up a copy and blazed my way through it insanely quickly. This is the definition of a white-knuckle literary roller coaster. It’s a perfect beach read, or just something to read…
The Mind Reels 