To catch a killer is a decent and entertaining thriller perfect for a weekend night

I went into this one completely blind. No trailers, no reviews, no clips, nothing, just pure instinct given my love for the thriller genre. And that was a fantastic decision. Whilst I was fairly tired and not particularly in the mood for watching, well, anything, I was atleast partially excited to see how exactly would this Baltimore based serial shooter story would play out and I must say it didn't dissapoint me. Granted, I had 0 expecations going into this, so the usage of the term "dissapointed" should be put in big floating airquotes, but it kept me on the edge of my seat and entertained throught it's relatively short runtime.

Sadly, I was quite tired during the screening, so I might have missed out on some aspects of the film, but I still reckon that it was quite an enjoyable experiance. My friends who went to see it with me thought it was perfectly decent and I have to agree with them. I'm not sure did they enjoy it more or less than I did, but, hey, that's not really my choice and it's perfectly fine if they didn't end up caring for it or didn't enjoy it on the same level I did.

Another funny coincidence regarding this is the fact that, just a few days prior to seeing this, I watched another Baltimore based thriller flick entitled The Raven, which, whilst focusing on a serial killer rather than a mass murderer and also being a period piece, I enjoyed as well and had already reviewed in my previous entry.

So, what makes Damián Szifron's first, and so far only, English language feature so good in my eyes?

Well, let's take a brief look, starting with...

(1) The Acting

I usually don't really care about acting or actors because I find that aspect to be very much secondary when telling a story, however, I decided to start off with it because it's the one aspect both critics and general audiences were fond off.

Of course, Ben Mendelhson is fantastic in this, but he has been terrific in pretty much everything I've seen him in (which includes movies like The Dark Knight Rises, Knowing, Rogue One, Darkest Hour, Ready Player One and shows such as Roughnecks, Farscape and especially The Outsider, where he gave probably my favorite performance in the whole thing). The guy can bring a spark of joy to even the worst pieces of media out there, like in Robin Hood (2018) and Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014) because he's an utter badass with a very powerful and commanding presence to him. His performance was definetely the highlight of this venture, but that's certainly due to years of acting experiance he's had on both screen and stage.

And, of course, what is a movie without a lead?

Shailene Woodley (known, amongst other things, for her previous work in films like the Divergent Series, The Fault in our stars, Snowden and shows such as Without a trace, CSI: New York, Cold Case and The Secret life of an American teenager) stars as our lead, Baltimore PD officer Eleanor Falco and I thought she did a stellar job. I'm usually not the biggest fan of hers (not to say that she's bad, but she isn't really amongst my top tier favorite actresses), but, I have to say, this was my favorite performance of hers in the entirety of her career. She wonderfully carries out all of her emotions: the pain, the stress, the fear in a powerful display of duty and want. Don't get me wrong, this isn't really an Oscar worthy role, but the character herself is one of my favorite fictional female leads of the decade so far.

And now for my favorite aspect, the antagonist.

Ralph Ineson plays the mass shooter Dean Possey (who previously proved himself as an actor in some pretty decent flicks like Ready Player One, Harrry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and The Huntsman: Winter's War and some damn near excelent ones like The Northman (my favorite film of 2022), The Witch, Kingsman: The Secret Service and The Green Knight as well some realtively well made shows like The Office (UK original), Merlin, The IT Crowd, Sherlock, Absentia, The Dark Crystal: Age of Ressistance, Chernobyl and The Capture) and delivers a powerful, emotional and heartbreaking role as him. I've recently began reading Jeffrey Deaver's novel The Devil's Teardrop (which shares quite a lot of simmilarities with this film if I'm honest) and, whilst it's certainly well written, I feel like the antagonist is a bit lacking. Now, it might just be because I've only started it and he hasn't really made a proper appearence as of now, but, yeah, I'm not really impressed with him for now. Granted, Possey doesn't really show up in the film either, but I feel like, in both cases, that works as the villain's strongsuit. Sure, they might not be the best developed, but they have a very phantom or demon-esque presence which makes them tad before terrifying. After all, as Lovecraft said: Mankind's oldest and strongest emotion is fear and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is the fear of the unkown.

Eventually he does indeed show up and, I have to say, he makes for a pretty threatining antagonist. But he isn't just scary or powerful, he's also incredibly sympathetic, proving that there is no black and white and that even the worst evil wears a surprisingly human face. I love a good "pure evil" antagonist myself on occasion, but, it's neat to get somebody you can both hate and root for.

Sadly, like everywhere in life, one can't avoid negatives and here, this negative is FBI agent Jack Mackenzie played by Jovan Adepo (who you might know for his roles in movies like the period comedy Babylon and war horror Overlord and shows like the police procedural NCIS: Los Angeles, scifi drama The Leftovers, alternate history gem Watchmen, drama Sorry for your loss, spy thriller Jack Ryan and the dreadful 2020 adaptation of Stephen King's epic fantasy novel The Stand). It's not that he's a bad actor, far from it, he actually does a fine job in all of the afframentioned roles. But he's just very bland and forgettable. Quite frankly, if it weren't for me looking up some photos of the film I would have forgotten he was in here. But, that's just my personal opinion and, who knows, maybe someone liked his character, I don't know and I won't judge.

Overall a decent selection of actors playing an occasionaly bland, however, certainly never dull cast of characters.

(2) The Writing

Many criticized the film's writing for being bland, cliche and uninventive, I however, happen to disagree. Sure, it may not be the greatest writing put to the big screen, but I'd say it's far from bad or incompetent.

The most important aspect of any mystery flick is the tension and here it's masterfully executed. From the tense and brutal opening sequence of the New Year's Eve shooting, all the way up to the heart pumping and emotionally charged finale, this movie really delievers on it. I heavily related to the dread of everyone, from the random onlookers, all the way up to our lead even though I, thankfully, haven't paved witness to an event like this.

Another great aspect is the mystery itself.

Sure, you know that everything will be settled down and that our leads will find the killer, but the way it's executed is what matters. Here, we are meticolously shown every detail of the investigation and it's techniques which, whilst many would find quite boring, as a somewhat of a forensic scienece and true crime junkie myself I really appreciated. It also perfectly illustrates how often law enforcement is prone to profiling a suspect prior to even meeting them in person, sadly resulting in the loss of a life. When we finally reach the conclusion, with all of the pieces of the narrative falling into a thier each place, the results are not only oddly satisfying, but also very touching. I'm not gonna spoil too much for those who haven't seen it, but, the ending turns this movie into far more than just an average detective thriller and gives it a dose of social commentary which I quite appreciate.

And that's what I loved the most about this film.

It tackles some very serious issues in contemporary society and geniuenly makes you wonder Who is the actual monster here? The killer or the society that turned him into one?

It may not be the most original message a film like this could tackle, however, I'd lie if I said that it didn't make me think for a bit after the film was over and even teared me up a bit.

The movie also tackles another very serious issue which I very much believe should be more represented in media, that being the role of women in law enforcment and how they aren't taken very seriously given that it's priamrily seen as a brutish male proffesion.

Now, once again, this isn't completely original for the thriller genre. Way back in 1988 author Thomas Harris wrote the psychologycal thriller novel The Silence of the Lambs which was adapted into the equally amazing 1991 film of the same name, both of which tackled the exact same issue and, whilst they certainly handled it better in my opinion, I believe that more stories in any medium based around law enforcement should tackle this issue as it's just as prevelent now as it was back then.

To catch a killer handles this fairly well and I'm surprised that this personal element to Falco's story in the film isn't straight up abanndoned. She is shown as intelligent, competent and understandably frightened however, looked down upon by her colleagues for reasons which aren't really clearly stated and it's not until agent Lammark steps in that she's given some credit and a more major role within the case itself. Again, whilst her character isn't on the same level of complexit as is Clarice Starling's is, she's still very much a needed piece of representation.

(3) The Visuals

Another aspect of the film that was highley praised by both critics and audiences was Szifron's specific style of filmmaking which makes the movie stand out in the sea of other movies and shows dealing with the same subject matter, making it atleast a tad bit less generic. Whilst I, as I had made it abundantly clear, didn't find the film to be bad or generic by any means neccesary, I do have to agree that the visuals in this film are downright phenomenal.

I'll be brutally honest here for a second, I haven't seen any of the previous films and TV shows Szifron had worked on prior to this (yes, not even the critically acclaimed Wild Tales, shoot me if you must), so I can't say that I'm familiar with his signature style, however, this was a great and bold new experiance for me and I'll be sure to give a shot to his other creations at some point in the future.

Anyways, let's get back to the point.

The movie's general aesthetic is mostly pretty standards, however, that's mostly how I'd reffer to the scenes that were filmed during daytime (with the exception of some wide shots when the leads are driving anywhere). The nighttime shots are absolutely stunning and reach a perfect balance between artsy and real. Szifron masterfully uses lights, shadows and reflection to give some scenes a hypnotic and dream-like quality which certainly elevates the whole experiance, making me glad that I got to see it on the big screen. If I had to single out three of the scenes that I thought had the most impact on me as a viewer due to their visuals those would be the smoke enduced hallucination from the start of the film, the pool scene from the end of the second act and the gutwrenching ending. They're all very brief (only lasting a few seconds each), but they were what made me realize how talented Szifron actually is as a director and I wish him best of luck in the future.

PS: Sadly I couldn't find any screenshots or footage of these online so I suppose you'll just need to see the film for yourself in order to witness them.

So, in the end, would I reccomend the film?

I would if I'm honest.

It's a competently written, visually stunning and well cast little mystery thriller which, whilst not on the same level as some other movies in this genre, will certainly make fans of it happy thanks to it's well executed tensions, consistent tone and not very original, but pretty poigniant social commentary.

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