To Catch a Killer (2023) Movie Drinking Game
Do a Shot: for every action set piece.
Take a Drink: any time a character is watching the news or it is on in the background.
Do a Shot: any time we see someone get shot.
Take a Drink: every time you inadvertently laugh at a death. This film has some great unintentional comedy.
By: Movie Snurb (Four Beers) –
On New Year’s Eve in Baltimore, Maryland everyone is celebrating, except for Eleanor Falco (Shailene Woodley), who is responding to a complaint about a woman sitting too long in a restaurant. In an instant, 29 people are killed by sniper rifle, then immediately after the police pinpoint where the shots came from, the apartment explodes.
Ben Mendelsohn’s Special Agent Lammark of the FBI is assign to find the killer. He recruits Eleanor to help the FBI. It a classic cat and mouse crime thriller made by Damian Szifron, who is making his first film in English.
A Toast
Shailene and Ben bring a groundedness to their respective roles. Ben Mendelsohn has been putting in consistently good work for many years now. He just needs the right role and he could be an Oscar winner. Shailene sometimes struggles to rise above the material, but she is good here as an emotional cop struggling with the weight of the world.
The opening of the film and a couple other sequences are so well-crafted, the tension is pulled so tight that one prick and it could explode. It’s clear that Damian has an eye for action setpieces. It’d be interesting to see what he could do with a Bond film, or something of his own creation.
Beer Two
Though the action setpieces earlier in the film are excellent, the third act is where this film begins to struggle. The film works when its tension is pulled tight. Certain events transpire in which the film loses all tension. It’s like letting out all the air from a balloon too early.
Beer Three
[MAJOR SPOILER ALERT] If you do not want to know anything about this film or if you have not seen this film, do not read this critique. I don’t understand why the Lammark character is killed. He and Eleanor make it known that they want to help the killer. They do not want to kill him, instead that want to get him psychiatric help.
So why does he kill Lammark and not Eleanor? Is it because he doesn’t trust Lammark? If so, we do not know that is why he only kills Lammark. It just seemed like Damian was going for shock value and emotional manipulation rather than good storytelling. [MAJOR SPOILERS OVER]
Beer Four
Sometimes when foreign directors make films set in America they can either miss political points or sometimes not be focused enough to make a point. A recent example is Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri. That’s what has happened here with Damian Szifron and Johnathan Wakeham.
I don’t know what they’re trying to say with this film. Not only that, but it feels like they’re trying to say everything they feel about America in one film. It becomes too many things they’re trying to talk about which leads to a film not having anything to say at all. When the film ends, will anyone understand what Damian and Johnathan want us to take away from this film? Do you have any clues? Because I do not.
Verdict
I am not sure what Damian and Johnathan are trying to say about America. But, this is a watchable thriller thanks to Shailene Woodley and Ben Mendelsohn’s performances, and some stellar action set pieces.
