By Travis Johnson
Well, this is certainly a tonal shift for director Ben Wheatley. When your lightest film so far is High-Rise, “dour” is certainly an apt descriptor to throw around when talking about your body of work (see: A Field in England, Kill List). But this? This looks like really good fun.
The basic premise is as simple a can be: a gun deal goes wrong, and a disparate gathering of desperadoes are left to fight it out over both the money and the merchandise. There are plenty of familiar faces itching to blow each others’ brains out here, including Michael Smiley (naturally), Armie Hammer, Brie Larson, Sharlto Copley, Cillian Murphy and Noah Taylor. Plus, Martin Scorsese is on EP duties – that’s cool.
I suspect the big question is whether such a carefully circumscribed premise – it seems to be all one location, one long stand-off – can be kept interesting for the running time of a feature, but Wheatley is a huge talent, so out money would be on Yes. There’s no word on an Australian release date as yet, but first quarter of 2017 would be a safe bet.
