Dead Man's Wire

A suspenseful throwback to the gritty crime dramas of the 1970's, DEAD MAN'S WIRE is taut full of suspense and based on a true story of televised revolution.

Be prepared to be plunged into a cold February day in 1977. Director Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting) and his team recreate that chilly Indianapolis day, giving the entire film a palpable sense of time and place.

Bill Skarsgard is a long way from Pennywise in a superb performance as everyman Tony Kiritsis, whose American dream is imploding.

He purchased a plot of land, has cleared parts of it himself and has had several major tenants, including a major grocery store, commit to development.

The Meridian Mortgage company has apparently diverted those potential tenants to other parcels and pressed Tony with ballooning interest payments.

Bank President ML Hall (Al Pacino) and his son, Dick (Dacre Montgomery) are two generations of banking institution in Indianapolis. Are they on the up and up?

As the film opens, we hear Jazz DJ Fred Temple (a perfectly cast Colman Domingo) on the radio, selling music and philosophy in equal measure. Temple is the only calm, quiet voice in Tony's world.

Skarsgard creates a fully rounded character, desperate, funny, confused and pissed off. Tony enters the Mortgage company office and takes Dick hostage, holding a double barrel shotgun to the back of his head. Winding a trip wire around Dick's neck and the trigger, if either of them fall or Tony goes down, the gun goes off.

What follows is a crazy series of events that are so bizarre they can only be true.

Temple gets pulled into the crisis when Tony insists the only person he wants to talk to the DJ live on the radio, telling all of Indianapolis about what Meridian has done to him.

Pacino is solid in a small but important role as the company patriarch, unwilling to accept any blame, regardless of that fact's impact on his son.

Cary Elwes is unrecognizable in great period hair and makeup as Detective Michael Grable, who knows Tony from their local watering hole. Elwes disappears into the role, one of his best performances in years.

Myha'la (Leave The World Behind) is very good as Linda Page, a local reporter in the right place at the right time as the saga unfolds.

Van Sant is on fire here, creating one of his best films in years, creating a crime drama that oozes 1970's grit. The camerawork and styling of the film gives off "The French Connection" and "Serpico" vibes in grayed out, relentless waves.

It's not unusual looking at Van Sant's past work that he would create the ultimate tell of an anti-hero, but I didn't expect going in, to feel for Tony as much as I did. That's a tribute to Van Sant's direction, a tight screenplay by newcomer Austin Kolodney and a killer performance by Skarsgard.

Every man has a breaking point and Skarsgard lays it bare before your eyes.

You can't pull DEAD MAN'S WIRE any tighter if you tried, earning it a solid B.

Now someone else cast Elwes in these kind of supporting roles immediately, he's off the charts as Grable! That's him above with the shield around his neck. Hard to believe, right?