Directed by David MacKenzie | Written by Justin Piasecki | 112 min | ▲▲▲▲
A version of this review appeared during the coverage of #TIFF24 in September of last year.
This picture is an achingly chilly, exceptionally well-crafted anti-tech tech thriller, one that may not quite be in Michael Clayton or The Parallax View‘s league, but it aspires to be. We rarely see this kind of thing these days — a movie with a lock-tight plot, compelling characters, and a detailed and vivid urban environment. It’s another fine effort from David MacKenzie, who directed the excellent Hell Or High Water, pretty damn good Outlaw King, and the lesser-seen but interesting, Perfect Sense.
Riz Ahmed is Ash, a kind of broker, a man who helps whistleblowers unload their important documents and/or collect the money they have coming to them from aggressive, often homicidal corporate types who are desperate to hide their industrial malfeasance. It’s an interesting gig, and makes you wonder whether that job actually exists in RL. He communicates with “clients” on either side of this divide by using a relay service — he types on a machine that an operator reads over the phone to another person, this way he’s untraceable and no one ever gets to hear his voice.
In this case it’s Sarah Grant (Lily James) who has pilfered files from a biotech company that reveals their new genetically modified superfood has a high percentage of lethal side effects. She was going to go public, but the company’s threats and harassment — they have a whole team for this (including Sam Worthington, Willa Fitzgerald, Jared Abrahamson, and Pun Bandhu) — Sarah just wants to give back the documents and get on with her life. A lawyer helps connect her with Ash, whose service can help keep her safe.
The problem is Sarah’s not very good at this corporate espionage, and Ash has his hands full trying to keep the heavies away from her while also making sure he gets paid.
This picture also had room for a character study of Ash as a recovering alcoholic, attending meetings on the regular and getting to know Wash (Eisa Davis), a New York City cop. She’s the one who suggests he needs to pay attention to addict behaviour in his life, even as he’s been on the wagon for a year and half — which speaks to his intensity in his weird job. Ahmed is terrific in the part, providing an almost entirely silent performance in the first act and maintaining a movie-star magnetic interiority throughout.
MacKenzie and his DP Giles Nuttgens capture New York in the day and night in all its wide-screen glory, a slick and gorgeous playground for the plot’s machinations. Full marks as well to the soundtrack by Tony Doogan, low key and unobtrusive but entirely complementary in casting a spell. At one point the music rises at a key moment just enough for us to hear the refrain, “It’s just a game, it’s just a game.”
Underneath the gleaming surfaces and the unexpected twists is a grim, noir heart, the unspoken, accepted idea that all these massive corporations operating with impunity are completely corrupt — unless an individual on the inside has the nerve to stand up. Ash’s uniquely analogue communication method, along with his singular, focused, and controlled operation behind more locked doors than Maxwell Smart, makes him a particularly American brand of outlaw in the face of this kind of villainy. He’s the hero we need right now.
Helen O’Hara on The Empire Podcast has a great expression for movies where someone is super-capable at their jobs and we just get to enjoy them doing their thing — “competence porn.” That’s Relay in a nutshell.
