Worth: $16.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Tom Pelphrey, Idina Menzel, Ryan Phillippe, Jacki Weaver, Paul Schneider, Kevin Corrigan
Intro:
...a masterclass of a performance.
Deciding when an actor has ‘arrived’ is a nebulous thing. Actor Tom Pelphery has been working solidly for the last 20 years (and even has a Daytime Emmy for his troubles, for CBS soap Guiding Light), but when he appeared onscreen in episode 22 of Netflix’s family crime drama Ozark, he didn’t just arrive, Pelphery landed like a meteorite.
His heartbreaking portrayal of Wendy Byrd’s brother, Ben, a man battling demons both real and imagined, was the definition of star-making. In just a handful of episodes, Pelphery managed to steal the show from its heavyweight leads Laura Linney and Jason Bateman, secure a slew of award nominations, and gain the attention of the world.
One of those people paying attention was writer/director Matthew Gentile, who had been developing a film based on the life of Jason Derek Brown – one of the youngest men to ever appear on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List. Gentile needed a chameleon, someone who could change their look and demeanour at the drop of a hat. Someone who could attract and repel the audience in equal measure, and when he, like millions of others, saw Pelphery on Ozark he knew he had found his Jason Derek Brown.
American Murderer opens with a panicked Jason Derek Brown entering a pawnbroker. Brown has (apparently) just lost both his father and mother and is regrettably parting with their heirlooms. His teary sob story quickly turns to shrewd haggling when the broker lowballs him. It is with this opening act of volatile duplicity that writer/director Matthew Gentile lets the audience in on the ruse that is Jason Derek Brown – this is a man not to be trusted. Ever.
A title like American Murderer works somewhat like Chekhov’s gun – we know that Brown’s criminality will escalate well beyond petty theft, but who will he kill? And why? Gentile knows he has the audience’s curiosity, and he uses the anticipation it conjures as a springboard for his narrative.
As portrayed in the film, Jason Derek Brown was no criminal mastermind. Instead, he was just a man with limited impulse control, who could talk himself into or out of any situation. His presence on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List – next to Osama Bin Laden no less – is a head-scratching outlier. Brown’s inclusion possibly tells us something about the bureau itself – the more elusive Brown became, the more resources they threw at capturing him. It would seem that the FBI really likes to get their man.
Told primarily in flashback, American Murderer follows FBI agent Lance Leising (a stoic Ryan Phillippe) as he interviews Brown’s friends, family, and lovers. Leising’s footwork proves frustrating, as every time he sits down with a new person, he gets a different version of Brown. It quickly emerges that these people are not complicit, but instead are victims of Brown themselves – Brown is a sociopath and will become whatever the person in front of him needs him to be.
Gentile’s narrative conceit creates a veritable acting playground for his leading man. Jason Derek Brown is a brother, a son, a lover, and a friend. He is also charismatic, sexy, pathetic, manipulative, and violent. It is a testament to Tom Pelphrey’s considerable talent that none of these characteristics are discordant or jarring – his Brown is complex, deeply flawed, but always enticing. It is a masterclass of a performance, one that evokes the seductive self-loathing energy of Michael Fassbender in Shame or Christian Bale in American Psycho.
A large portion of Pelphrey’s success must be attributed to his game scene partners. Ryan Phillippe, Paul Schneider, Idina Menzel, Kevin Corrigan, and especially Jacki Weaver, are all memorable as people stuck in Jason Derek Brown’s orbit.
Shot during the pandemic on a limited independent budget, American Murderer contains much less gunplay and thrills than its guns-drawn poster and inflammatory title would suggest. Instead of stretching his budget to breaking point, Gentile (wisely) embraces the limitations surrounding his debut and derives thrills and tension from Brown’s volatile unpredictability, not an endless array of muzzle flashes.
Those hoping to see sprawling urban warfare will be disappointed, as this film has much more in common with Anthony Minghella’s The Talented Mr Ripley than it does with Michael Mann’s Heat, but for those in search of an insightful character piece, especially one with an indelible performance at its core, they could do much worse than American Murderer. A rock-solid debut.
Read FilmInk’s interview with director Matthew Gentile here.
