“Dead Man’s Wire” was already in production when Luigi Mangione deadly shot United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December 2024. But you would be forgiven to interpret it as a reaction to these eventss. de film – Director Gus van trueIs only then “Don’t worry, he’s not going far on foot” In 2018 – takes place in the 1970s, another decade when the dissenses driven by economic stagnation exploded to politically charged violence. But its sympathy for its annoyed anti -hero feels very relevant.
“Exploded” can be taken literally here, as Tony Kiritsis (Bill Skarsgård) rigged his indianapolis apartment with homemade munitions when he took his mortgage broker, Richard Hall (Dacre Montgomery), Hostage there for 63 Frozen Hours in Frozen Hoours in February. That is given van Sant’s Movie its name, a wire that was attached to the trigger of a shotgun on one end, and meandered around Hall’s head on the other. If Hall jerked too violently, let alone tried to run, the thread would pull the trigger, fire the shotgun that Kiritsis had pointed to the back of Hall’s head.
At risk Spoiled well -documented (if any memory hole) historical eventsThere are no “scanners” style shots of exploding heads in “Dead Man’s Wire.” The opportunity feels very real in the magnificent tense opening scene, which counts down minutes and seconds when Kiritsis takes hall caught in his office and leads him several blocks through central Indianapolis with the titular device around his neck. Together with Danny Elfman’s jazzy point, the sequence feels really dangerous, because cops and spectators are stupid at Kiritsis’ Brazen Gambit.
The opportunity also rediscover later, in moments where Kiritsis swims annoyance – he feels that he has been deceived by his own personal American dream, through a complicated fight for a plot in the countryside – Indiana – is brought to a boiling of police disorders. Overall, “Dead Man’s Wire” has problems with maintaining tension in addition to the breathtaking opener. This weakness is partially baked into the story: five days is a long time to hold your breath, and even hall sleeps, albeit restless, during that time. The rest is a side effect of van Sant’s narrative style.
“Dead Man’s Wire” depends on a cliché that is seen in many films based on a true story, namely to show pictures of real people together with the actors playing them. We see this in the closing credits, which is understandable enough; It becomes a question when the images overlap the fictional events that develop on the screen. This is especially noticeable with a sub -plan involving Linda Page (Myha’la), an ambitious young news reporter that is usually located to Ladies’ luncheon pace.
The page and her cameraman stumble into the Kiritsis story very early and refuse to give it up when higher up in the news room begins to pay attention as well. She acts as a kind of narrator and keeps the audience informed of new development in Kiritsi’s apartment when the distance really begins. Her reports are accompanied by actual archival news films told by an older white male anchor; These do not contradict the page’s updates, but they draw focus from her and her story.
This composition can be useful for illustrating Linda’s struggle to be taken seriously as a black woman in an industry dominated by white men, but “dead man’s thread” never really gets there.
References to Kiritsis is a common in a police bar in Indianapolis, and therefore well known to officers such as Detective Michael Grab (Cary Elwes), is another missed opportunity. We can conclude that the police treat him differently because he is “one of them”, but this thread also gets lost when the number of characters and details expands throughout the film.
A peripheral character with serious enough to keep the story in orbit is Fred Temple (Colman Domingo), an even voice-morning radio DJ that acts as a reluctant but sympathetic sound board for the annoyed kidnapper. (Kiritsis is a big fan, as we see in a cut shot for a advertising on his kitchen counter.) The temple keeps its perspective on Kiritsi’s actions for itself; For the most part, he seems worried about keeping his wife waiting at home. It is an everyman perspective that welds with Kiritsi’s own, making the temple the most successful of several characters that van Sant uses to move the story forward.
The temple is introduced at the beginning of the film through a close-up of the mouth that speaks to a microphone, a nod to the DJ engineer in Walter Hills “The Warriors.” Although it again loses momentum when the film’s extent is expanded, there is a brusque efficiency for the visual story in “Dead Man’s Wire” which calls back to 70s classics such as “Taking Pelham One Two Three.” In particular, the editing has a pleasant punchig no-bullshit feeling about it, with composition to make their points clean and clear.
There is a hint of heavy-in-Kind-irony in the way that van Sant nods to his 70s impact, as well as in the needles that are spread throughout the film. (Kiritsis’ Burn-IT-Down Radio Rants is paired with the “Revolution will not be broadcast”, for example.) Where Van Sant becomes seriously in the film’s burning final stretch, which seems to be in agreement with many of the characters that Kiritsis is a folk hero.
The film’s only real villain is Al Pacino, who makes a Colonel Sanders accent like Richards Father ML Hall, whose suffering stiffness is responsible for capitalism as a whole. The indifference of the older hall towards his son’s life even his catcher, which gets a binding moment that softens the viewer’s perception of both men. These scenes, which take place in Kiritsi’s apartment halfway through the siege, briefly pull “Dead Man’s Wire” back in focus and clarify their dissertation on how the big guys are booming while the little guys are screwed.
You do not hire Bill Skarsgård unless you are looking for a slim, off-putting weirdo. But Skarsgård does a good job of making his character’s frustration and rising panic ground and related. This helps tremendously when we get to the final, which complicates the story of USA-VS-DEM. In the end, “Dead Man’s Wire” admits that Kiritsi’s violent acts had more negative effects than positive. But the man still had a point.
Rating: B-
“Dead Man’s Wire” premiered at 2025 Venice Film festival. It is currently seeking US distribution.
Want to keep you updated on IndieWire’s movie Reviews And critical thoughts? Subscribe here To our recently launched newsletter, in review by David Ehrlich, where our main film critic and Head Review’s editor rounds off the best new reviews and streaming choices along with some exclusive Musings – all only available for subscribers.
