4 Star

The Thriller of the Year.

Going back nearly fifty years to the start of punk rock and the rise of Saturday Night Fever, a man is very disgruntled with a mortgage company, and now it is time for accountability. Directed by famous director Gus Van Sant (My Own Private Idaho, Good Will Hunting), who brings out the very best in his leading man Bill Skarsgård (It, It: Chapter Two) who portrays his character with a precise fervor. Done in a documentary/fly-on-the-wall style, you get to feel all the awkward moments in this real-life-drama. A cracking watch as history is revealed.

On a warm sunny morning, it is Tuesday, February 8, 1977, in Indianapolis, and Tony Kiritsis (Bill Skarsgård) is driving to the Meridian Mortgage company, where he believes that he has an appointment with owner and mortgage broker

M.L. Hall (Al Pacino, Cruising, Danny Collins). Knowing that this meeting is coming, M.L. has disappeared off to Florida for an impromptu holiday, leaving his son Richard (Dacre Montgomery, Stranger Things (TV Series), Elvis) to take the fall for the four years of hurt that Tony is feeling.

I’m a good friend, but a bad enemy!

Tony has come with a plan, but M.L. not being there is just a hiccup, he unveils a shotgun from the package he was carrying, and he attaches it to ‘Dick’s’ neck and to his own, so if anyone tries to take out Tony, Dick gets it in the neck. Tony phones the local police, with whom he has had a good relationship up to this point. Detective Michael Grable (Cary Elwes, A Mouse’s Tale, The Princess Bride) is outside as Tony and Richard appear, Richard’s car is too far away so they commandeer a police car and Richard is forced to drive to Tony’s apartment.

This event is seen by budding reporter Linda Page (Myha’la, Premature, Industry (TV Series)) and her cameraman and they start filming as these events unfold. Once inside his apartment, Richard is secured, as is the shotgun, he has rigged the room with explosives, to put off any SWAT teams.

I’m a long time listener, first time caller.

All these events are held together with a cracking period soundtrack, played by DJ Fred Temple (Colman Domingo, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, Selma).

 

Dead Man’s Wire is a cracking depiction of the little man taking the fight to corporate injustice, well worth a trip to the cinema. Highly recommended for the history buff in the family.

Dead Man’s Wire is in Cinemas from 20th march