Category Archives: Thriller

Islands review — Seductive, peculiar desert moods

March 22, 2026 flawintheiris

Directed by Jan-Ole Gerster | Written by Gerster, with Blaž Kutin and Lawrie Doran | ▲▲▲ | VOD Cinephiles will recognize where they are in the opening minute of Islands. This is a daytime noir consisting of deserts and water, both the stuff you drink and the stuff that fills swimming pools, swaddled in a…Read More

In Cold Light review — Gritty Alberta thriller delivered by performances

February 28, 2026 flawintheiris

Directed by Maxime Giroux | Written by Patrick Whistler | 96 min | ▲▲1/2 I'm not the first to say it, but Maika Monroe should be a bigger star. She brings a rarely felt authenticity to every role she chooses, from The Guest and It Follows to Longlegs — that's certainly the case here where…Read More

How To Make A Killing review — Dial meh for murder

February 21, 2026 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by John Patton Ford | 105 min | ▲▲ This filmmaker wowed audiences his last time out with a cracking, pertinent thriller, Emily The Criminal. More's the shame he's bungled the follow-up, a picture that arrives with a promising satiric premise but never achieves anything close to that promise. If you've seen…Read More

Crime 101 review — An exceptional, slickly made thriller

February 16, 2026 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Bart Layton, based on the novella by Don Winslow | 139 min | ▲▲▲▲ What a pleasure to watch a masterfully crafted thriller, one that feels like the product of another era when these kinds of movies appeared regularly at the multiplex. Critics before me have compared it to Heat, which is…Read More

A Private Life review — Jodie Foster shines in Parisienne mystery

January 28, 2026 flawintheiris

Directed by Rebecca Zlotowski | Written by Zlotowski, Anne Berest and Gaëlle Macé | 103 min | ▲▲▲1/2 An earlier version of this review ran on the blog during the Toronto International Film Festival 2025 The main draw here — though the film has a number of supplementary pleasures — is Jodie Foster performing in…Read More

Mercy (2026) review — A simply awful time at the movies

January 22, 2026 flawintheiris

Directed by Timur Bekmambetov | Written by Marco van Belle | ▲ It's not often a movie makes me angry. I love cinema, so even the worst, most poorly made piece of crap usually offers something for me to enjoy. Mercy, which wants to be a gritty, adrenalized crime thriller cum science fiction picture, offers…Read More

The Rip review — Damon and Affleck’s gritty cop thriller

January 21, 2026 flawintheiris

Directed by Joe Carnahan | Written by Carnahan and Michael McGrale | ▲▲▲1/2 | Netflix The serious draw here would be writer-director Carnahan — purveyor of the finest tough-guy crime thrillers like Copshop and Boss Level — if it wasn't for his producers and stars, the effortless A-List leading man power of Matt Damon and…Read More

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