“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.” -William Shakespeare, The Tempest
Genre: Science Psychological Thriller + Crime Mystery
Themes: Moral Ambiguity, Revenge, & Faith
Letterbox’d Score: 4.3/5 | My Rating: 4.5/5 | Where to watch: Prime Video
How does the stress of trauma lead to morally ambiguous choices, and when confronted with unquestionably evil acts, how does our faith in something greater stand the test? When Keller Dover’s daughter, Joy, alongside her friend Ann, goes missing on Thanksgiving Day. As Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) leads the official investigation, the only major lead they have is a mysterious RV spotted on their street just before the kidnappings. The main suspect? Alex Jones, a mentally disabled teenager who was the person last known to be driving the RV that was seen parked on their street, however, the case stalls when the police release Alex due to a lack of evidence. As Dover’s faith in the police dissipates, he begins to take matters into his own hands, kidnapping Alex, holding him hostage for days on end, and attempting to torture a confession out of him. The film explores the cycle of suffering and how, when pain is inflicted upon us, we lose our sense of control, and often we knowingly or unknowingly inflict it back onto others to regain that control. It examines the relationship between trauma and religion, and how, when faced with suffering, we often tend to fall back on religion. When religion doesn’t solve the problem or lessen the pain, we often feel a greater sense of loss, not just in what happened, but in the fact that we begged our God for an answer or for the pain to go away, and no one answered. What remains is the silence of unheard prayer? And how does morality dissolve under the pressure of the unknown, especially when the situation is dire?
Genre: Legal Drama, Psychological Thriller, and Mystery/Crime
Themes: Subjectivity of Perception, The Unknowable Quality of Truth, Complex Relationships.
Letterbox’d Score: 4.1/5 | My Rating: 4.5/5 | Where to watch: Netflix
Truth can appear ambiguous when other people’s percpetion dictate what the reality of a situation is. In Anatomy of a Fall, Sandra Voyter’s (Sandra Hüller) husband is found dead in the snow outside their house in France under suspicious circumstances she is accused of his murder. From there, the mystery starts to reveal itself, when minor details such as blood splatter patterns don’t quite add up, the police grow more and more suspicious of Sandra, becoming convinced that she was behind an illustrious murder plot on her husband. Suspecting contempt and resentment in the relationship, the police attempt to paint Sandra as a manipulative, cold, and controlling wife, suggesting that she pushed her husband out the window in a cold-blooded attempt to murder him, which succeeded. However, Sandra’s team argues that Samual’s death was a suicide, brought on by clinical depression and pervasive jealousy, which resulted in him orchestrating his own death to frame his wife in one final act of manipulation to ruin her life as he felt she did to his. The film is intentionally ambiguous, allowing the viewer to determine how they percieve the truth, but the reality is, no evidence is outright pointed at Sandra. The film critiques traditional gender roles and the way the court system, goverment, and society as a whole demonize women who defy those roles and expectations. Sandra is more than put on trial; her life is dissected, her morality and character questioned, and her sexuality used as a scapegoat to demonize her as an unfit mother and neglectful wife. Proving how women’s guilt is often determined by the percpetion of their personality, rather than by undeniable facts.
Genre: Science Neo-noir Psychological Thriller
Themes: Ambition vs Obsession, Media Ethics, and Capitalism.
Letterbox’d Score: 4.0/5 | My Rating: 4.5/5 | Where to watch: Tubi + Prime Video
Step into the mind of a deeply unwell budding sociopath and his descent into obsession-driven madness. This film allows you to step into the mind of an opportunist masochist, Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal), who finds himself entranced by the lucrative world of Los Angeles’s freelance crime videography and journalism. An aimless drifter surviving on conning and stealing his way through the world, until one night he witnesses a ‘Nightcrawler’ in action, a freelance journalist filming a crime scene to sell to the media and turn a profit. He then flips a bike to afford a police scanner and a camera. He then sells his first crime footage to a local news station, which is desperate for views. They agree to run Bloom’s grissley recording. Following Nina’s news anchor philosophy, ‘If it bleeds, it leads, “ encourages Bloom to explore his brutal impulse to exploit moments of suffering and pain for profit. Bloom devolves into a crime-driven obsession, where nothing is off limits, and his desire to capture macabre scenes comes above all else, even human life. Bloom is willing to do anything to ensure he gets his shot. Throughout the film, we get insight into how explotative the media industry can be and see how it relies on morally bankrupt individuals to do the dirty work of the news organization. Lou’s sociopathic relentlessness has been encouraged, even rewarded, by the media. It warns that sociopathic men are often touted as accomplished under capatalism, despite how they find success through moral bankruptcy.
Meet the Author: Cailey Davern
I graduated from DePaul University with a Degree in Communications and Media (Go Blue Demons!). I currently work at a NYC-based Marketing Agency as a Social Media Lead who runs the social accounts for Non-Profit clients. I currently reside in the Chicago suburbs and live with my cat, Harley, who is 3. I love all things vintage fashion, music, and movies. I am an avid reader, and I love books adapted into movies and short series. In my free time, I enjoy thrifting, collecting vinyl, going to live shows, spending time with friends, and watching movies!
Letterbox’d: https://boxd.it/auB2T
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