Since we didn’t get around to reviewing Gus Van Sant’s Dead Man’s Wire at TIFF, let this serve as a preview of the coming “full” review, which will drop closer to release: It’s a very, very good movie. A taut black comedy about an aggrieved and broke goofball who decides to take matters into his own hands when it comes to getting vengeance on the bank he thinks ripped him off, it’s a true-crime hostage story that is genuinely enthralling to watch unfold. Bill Skarsgard plays the hostage-taker, Dacre Montgomery plays the hostage, Coleman Domingo plays a smooth-voiced radio host, and Al Pacino plays the most amusing asshole dad you’ll see on screens this winter. Call it a return to form for Van Sant or whatever you want, but it’s a tremendously entertaining piece of populist agitprop. Row K — a new distributor with some high-value releases on their docket — dropped a teaser for the film earlier this week, and you should check it out ASAP.
Peep it:
Instead of an official synopsis for Dead Man’s Wire, here’s the write-up that was featured in the TIFF50 Program:
“In films like ‘To Die For,’ ‘Elephant,’ and ‘Milk,’ Oscar nominee Gus Van Sant has used cinema as a means of mirroring American life in all its extremes and complexities. Graced with captivating performances from Bill Skarsgård, Oscar nominee Colman Domingo, and Oscar winner Al Pacino (also at the Festival in ‘Easy’s Waltz’), ‘Dead Man’s Wire’ finds Van Sant returning to that based-on-real-events mode, tapping into the culture’s hunger for outlaw folk heroes who seek to wrest control from the privileged elite.
It is February, 1977. Having fallen behind on his mortgage and, as a result, lost the commercial property he’d dreamed of developing, aspiring Indianapolis entrepreneur Tony Kiritsis (Skarsgård) shows up for a meeting with Meridian Mortgage Company president Richard Hall (Dacre Montgomery). Tony expected to meet Hall Sr. (Pacino), but the Meridian founder is enjoying a luxury vacation in Florida, a fact that only stokes Tony’s ire.
The feature screenwriting debut of Austin Kolodney (‘Funny Or Die’), ‘Dead Man’s Wire’ resonates powerfully with present-day class resentments. It’s also darkly funny, wildly entertaining, and rife with appealing supporting characters, especially Domingo’s beloved local disc jockey, who Tony manages to rope into the negotiations.”
Dead Man’s Wire hits select theaters on January 9, before expanding to a theater near you on January 16.