September 10th in Chicago, IL. So I was hanging out in downtown Chicago on a rainy day and needed to kill some time while my wife was at work. I had heard about this film, it had an 88% Rotten Tomatoes rating, I had heard some good buzz and nothing else looked appealing. The film had a $10 million budget and has grossed over $82 million domestically.
There's a gang of essentially delinquents that are pulling off low to medium level burglaries in the Detroit area.
L to R: Money, Rocky and Alex
The team consists of Money (Daniel Zovatto), the standard drop out with dreams of being a big time gangster and who looks like James Franco from Spring Breakers. Rocky (Jane Levy), the tough but pretty Detroit chick who's only avenue to escape the bleakness of Detroit is crime (her home life is stereotypically awful, she wants to escape to sunny California with her little sister). She's also dating Money. Rounding out the gang is Alex (Dylan Minnette), the brains of the group. His dad owns a security company and it's his clients that they knock over and makes sure that the robberies stay under the felony limits. Alex has been in love with Rocky since grade school and is basically taking down scores to impress her (it's not working). Alex is a smart kid who doesn't need to be a criminal but love has a tendency to make people do silly things.
Let's be fair, a lot of geeky young males would take up crime to get close to her.
After the opening heist, Money meets the fence and feels they didn't get enough money ( the economics of robbery are not a dollar for dollar trade. A $10k watch doesn't mean you'll get $10k in return. This should be taught in Robbery/Burglary 101). The fence tips Money to a score that could net them 0ver $300,000. The mark is a Gulf War veteran who came into a settlement after his daughter was killed in a car accident. After the three "case the joint," they learn that the mark (Stephen Lang) is a blind man (with a large dog) who's the sole person living in an abandon neighborhood. He also happens to be a customer of Alex's dad so it works out.
Suffice to say that the heist does not go as planned. Money brings a gun upping the ante to armed robbery and a minimum prison sentence. It also turns out that the blind man is really adept at moving about the house. Things go from bad to worse and there are some creepy twists along the way. I would go into more detail but this was a good film that is worth watching and I don't want to give any spoiler alerts. Go see the film.
Fede Alvarez, wrote and directed the picture and does a really nice job of giving the audience the sense of isolation and ratcheting up the tension. There are more than a few "trapped in a house" tropes involved but he's not looking to reinvent the wheel. I started to feel bad for the gang when they clearly get more than they bargained for. There is also a disturbing twist when Rocky and Alex try to escape through the basement (does that ever work out in film?). That leads to a really disturbing scene involving a turkey baster (very cringeworthy). Heck, the opening shot of the film is of a woman being dragged down the street (ensuring the viewer that they are in store for something interesting to say the least).
Alvarez keep the film short (88 minutes) and never goes off the rails with ridiculousness found in other films like this. Don't Breathe is very similar to the likes of It Follows (both take place in Detroit and Blue Ruin; minimalistic, gritty and intense. Alvarez is a director worth keeping an eye on (his 2013 remake of Evil Dead of nice debut). This is a film worth watching. Check it out.
No comments:
Post a Comment