Category Archives: Thriller

The Secret Agent (O Agente Secreto) review — A compelling, unpredictable thriller from Brazil

December 15, 2025 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho | 161 min | ▲▲▲▲ The Secret Agent is a deconstructed political thriller from Brazil, but almost as if the filmmaker was inspired by Robert Altman, certainly the broad palate of American films of the 1970s. His rambling, rangy story is set in 1977, and for much of…Read More

Ballad of a Small Player review — Quit while you’re ahead

November 21, 2025 flawintheiris

Directed by Edward Berger | Written by Rowan Joffe, based on the book by Lawrence Osborne | 101 min |▲1/2 | On Netflix An earlier version of this review appeared on FITI during coverage of the Toronto International Film Festival 2025 In living memory has there been a film where the cinematography and production design…Read More

The Running Man (2025) review — Fast out of the blocks, but stumbles

November 18, 2025 flawintheiris

Directed by Edgar Wright | Written by Wright and Michael Bacall, based on the Stephen King (writing as Richard Bachman) novel | 133 min | ▲▲1/2 This movie is both better than expected and yet not as good as was hoped. Compared to the previous work of the wildly talented British filmmaker Edgar Wright, including…Read More

It Was Just An Accident review — The lingering damage of authoritarianism

October 31, 2025 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Jafar Panahi | 105 min | ▲▲▲ An earlier version of this review appeared on FITI in September during the Atlantic International Film Festival 2025 The movie that wins the Palme d'Or comes weighted with expectations that sometimes end up being too heavy for the picture to carry — by no…Read More

After the Hunt review — Crimes and misdemeanors

October 19, 2025 flawintheiris

Directed by Luca Guadagnino | Written by Nora Garrett | 138 min | ▲▲▲ It's rare to see a big Hollywood feature tackle a culture war subject — whether it's Diversity, Equality and Inclusion or #MeToo — but After the Hunt touches on both. It's a bit messy, and bit of a melodrama, which is…Read More

A House of Dynamite review — Kathryn Bigelow’s terrifically tense nuclear thriller

October 14, 2025 flawintheiris

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow | Written by Noah Oppenheim | 112 min | ▲▲▲1/2 | On Netflix It's been a long while since we've experienced a truly terrifying nuclear thriller. (Anyone remember the opening 10 minutes of Wargames?) Maybe because the threat of nuclear war feels weirdly abstract in the face of climate change, rising…Read More

The Woman in Cabin 10 review — Watery mystery quickly sinks

October 10, 2025 flawintheiris

Directed by Simon Stone | Written by Stone, Joe Shrapnel, and Anna Waterhouse, based on an adaptation by Emma Frost and a novel by Ruth Ware | 92 min | ▲1/2 | Netflix There's at least a couple of great Hollywood murder mysteries on the water — Anthony Perkins and Stephen Sondheim's The Last of…Read More

The Long Walk review — Brutal, effective tale dares you to look away

October 5, 2025 flawintheiris

Directed by Francis Lawrence | Written by JT Mollner, from the Stephen King (as Richard Bachman) novel | 108 min | ▲▲▲▲ Does it make any sense that in October 2025, when the critical community is losing their collective mind over One Battle After Another and its portrait of an America at war with itself, this…Read More

Highest 2 Lowest review — Spike Lee’s hip-hop Kurosawa joint

September 28, 2025 flawintheiris

Directed by Spike Lee | Screenplay by Alan Fox, based on Akira Kurosawa's High And Low, written by Hideo Oguni, Ryûzô Kikushima, and Eijirô Hisaita, and the book King's Ransom by Evan Hunter | 133 min | ▲▲▲1/2 | Apple TV+ At the heart of this picture is a conundrum that Spike Lee and Alan…Read More

Dead Of Winter review — Emma Thompson thriller dead on arrival

September 26, 2025 flawintheiris

Directed by Brian Kirk | Written by Nicholas Jacobson-Larson and Dalton Leeb | ▲1/2 Let me start by saying that Emma Thompson is a friggin' queen. Going back to her movie debut in the Richard Curtis-penned comedy with Jeff Goldblum, The Tall Guy, I've been a big fan. As her adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense…Read More