4 out of 5

Directed by: Damián Szifron

I say this knowing I will very rarely go to see a movie in a theater nowadays, but: I miss seeing movies like this in theaters. Or, I suppose, I miss feeling like movies like ‘To Catch a Killer’ were an event; something weighty enough to be seen on a big screen. Something where, when it shows up on streaming, it doesn’t feel as disposable as some direct-to-streaming options.

Which is A. a shame, because those DTS options can certainly have a lot of skill and effort behind them as well, and B. maybe irrelevant, because ‘Killer’ has weight, even when seeing it on a small screen, which I did. So what am I lamenting? Perhaps just the lack of movies that can be this good without a lot of flash and budget propping them up.

‘To Catch a Killer’ is a pretty classic police procedural: a killer is loose in Baltimore, having gone on a shooting spree on New Years Eve. When the FBI are called in, led by agent Geoffrey Lammark (Ben Mendelsohn), he notices some sharp observations made by copper Eleanor Falco (Shailene Woodley) and recruits her to a small team of agents he can trust – those who won’t sell out decisions to political pressures from the mayor, or the Bureau. Lammark butts against his superiors; Falco makes some rookie mistakes but keeps up her shrewd observations, and the team closes in on the killer, with other potential sprees looming…

There’s no flash there. There are some twists in the investigation but, spoiler, no wild reveals. The opening spree is backed by fireworks, but is not otherwise oversold with sound and fury – its pop, pop, pop, bodies fall, and people run. This is a linear, straightforward film of policing – pulling reports, doing interviews – and getting closer to the target. And it’s gripping.

Woodley and Mendelsohn’s chemistry (as coworkers! No obnoxious romance subplot here!) is perfect; Woodley, while somewhat rushed during some final, emotive moments and saddled with a shallowly-presented backstory, gives Falco full presence. She justifies Lammark nominating her for the team; she’s not a superhero, just knows how to watch and learn, and Woodley embodies that through body language and her reactions. Mendelsohn has to come across as an authoritative blend of patient and stubborn, and does it in spades. Lammark is the kind of character I think many actors would make easy to hate – he’s kind of a know-it-all – but Mendelsohn imbues the part with a no-nonsenseness that’s balanced by someone who understands he needs the help of those around him.

Damián Szifron’s direction and Javier Juliá’s tight, suffocating cinemtography – post an unfortunately very digital opening (presumably a money-saving move) – keeps us tied to the characters throughout, uniting us with them in needing to solve this before it gets worse. With most action nowadays bloating in a way where nothing feels like it has much stakes, in this film, single gunshots carry a punch, and by cutting away in some instances, Szifron makes it clear that we should be affected by these instances of mass violence. And I absolutely loved the small asides to Falco listening in or noting details; these didn’t necessarily amount to anything beyond character building – Falco doesn’t suddenly come up with a wild theory because of the way someone holds a pen – but it feeds in to why she feels trustworthy in her new FBI-liasion role. (It’s also part of the magic trick of the movie, inserting beats like this to cover up that there’s not really a lot of actual procedural work done; it’s a very smart sleight of hand.)

That kind of indirect commentary gets some more direct parallels, with the squareoffs between media / politics and Lammark’s desire to run a proper investigation touching on the hype-cycle of modern discourse. While I think the script here sometimes suffers to find something really poignant to say – bearing in mind this is Szifron’s first English language movie – when he and co-writer Jonathan Wakeham aren’t pushing for that, and instead just depicting the back-and-forths between Lammark and the political cronies, the stuff hits hard. Similarly, there’s some chatter about the shooter’s motivations towards the film’s conclusion, and these are brutally unflinching; no easy “well, he’s sick in the head” out offered, though, as mentioned, it feels like the filmmakers were trying to keep this under two hours, so some of those wrapup convos feel a bit rushed.

Overall, though, this was such a surprise: the kind of movie that you just start watching and… don’t stop. That really does take an all-hands-on from those behind and in front of the camera, and is a rarer and rarer experience for me. On top of that, I love when movies prove that you can tell a familiar story and just tell it well, and that’s can be plenty to make for a fantastic film.