Tag: media

DEAD MAN’S WIRE – Review

Dacre Montgomery as Richard and Bill Skarsgard as Tony, in Gus Van Sant’s DEAD MAN’S WIRE. Courtesy of Row K Entertainment

It has been seven years since we saw a film from Gus Van Sant but the director comes back strong with DEAD MAN’S WIRE, an impressive crime thriller/drama based on a bizarre real hostage incident in late 1970s Indianapolis. In 1977, an aspiring businessman, Tony Kiritsis (Bill Skarsgard), who felt cheated by his mortgage lender, took the company’s manager hostage, by attaching a shotgun to his neck with a looped wire, while the gun’s trigger was wired to the kidnapper’s body, so that if a sniper killed the kidnapper, the hostage would die too. The method has since called a dead man’s wire. Gus Van Sant uses this real event to craft a tense, thriller film, laced with a dark humor that built on the absurdity of the situation, but also human drama that touches on issues of despair and desperation, economic unfairness, and shady business dealings. DEAD MAN’S WIRE is a technically impressive film as well as working as both a gripping entertainment thriller and commentary on slanted economic system.

Much of this crazy real event was captured on film by news camera, which was shot continuously during the 63 hour standoff with the kidnapper. The engrossing historic thriller is given an authenticity by director Gus Van Sant who captures the feel of 1977, by carefully reproducing the 1970s styles and visual aesthetics of the time period, and most strikingly by recreating the look of TV news and shows of the era, in this film. The visuals so closely match the actual archival footage of the real event, snippets of which Van Sant inserts into his film. The event took place during a transitional moment in how news is covered, and the event is still taught in schools of journalism as an example of news reporting crossing a line to escalate a situation. It adds an eerie level to this already atmospheric, darkly comic thriller/drama.

The film does not condone the kidnapper’s actions but Bill Skarsgard’s masterful performance gives us insights on someone driven to the edge, after being taken advantage of by his unscrupulous, wealthy lender. Austin Kolodney’s script speaks to “Everyman” issues of economic inequality and an unfair system skewed to favor the already rich, a topic that particularly resonates today. There are echoes of DOG DAY AFTERNOON in this film, as well as other “little guy” against the system tales, of someone driven over the edge by circumstances. While DEAD MAN’S WIRE is based on a true story, the drama/thriller goes in unexpected directions, and leans into its dark, absurdist humor at times.

Bill Skarsgard gives a striking performance as the odd, even unbalanced Tony Kiritsis, a would-be real estate entrepreneur who relishes the spotlight, which is part of why this film is so involving.

Tony Kiritsis (Bill Skarsgard) has reached a desperate state with a mortgage he took out from local lender Meridian Mortgage. The mortgage was not for a home, but a business investment in real estate, property Tony Kiritsis hopes to develop as the location for a shopping mall. Tony had lined up plenty of would-be business tenants but he is puzzled as they fade away and he has trouble securing businesses to lease space. Without those funds, he falls behind on payments, and Tony has grown increasingly frustrated in trying to deal with his lender. When Meridian Mortage’s owner M. L. Hall (Al Pacino) offers to buy the property – for far less than Tony paid – Tony begins to suspect it is his own lender who is re-directing would-be leasers to other sites, sabotaging Tony’s business plan.

Tony’s anger and desperation leads to his plan with the dead man’s wire. The original target was Meridian’s M. L. Hall but instead, Tony ends up taking Hall’s son Richard, who also works for Meridian, hostage. Since this is based on a real event, that is not much of a spoiler, as the real big question is what happens next.

The police are alerted and are almost immediately on the scene, but there is little they can do, with Tony’s “dead man’s wire” shotgun apparatus pointed at Richard Hall’s head and the trigger wired to be pulled if Tony falls. Shooting Tony means killing his hostage too. Hence, Tony is able to take Richard to his apartment unimpeded, where he holds him for several days.

Meanwhile, ambitious young Black TV journalist Linda Page (Myha’la), who happens upon the scene, recruits her cameraman and starts filming the events, despite her boss’ efforts to hand off the assignment to a more experienced (and white, male) reporter. Events unfold that also involve at popular radio DJ, Fred Temple (Colman Domingo) known for his philosophical, Everyman musings on the radio. Tony Kiritsis is a fan, and the police try to use the DJ as a way to reach the kidnapper. Cary Elwes plays plainclothes detective Mike Grable, who was first on the scene, and who tries to be a calming figure to establish rapport with the kidnapper.

This bizarre crime and ensuing police standoff takes on a media circus-like air out in the Midwestern city streets, but the film also spends a lot of time inside Tony’s apartment, with just Tony and Richard, who goes by Dick. Holed up in Tony’s apartment, we get to know both oddball Tony and buttoned-down Richard. Dick is very much under the thumb of his wealthy father. M.L. knew Tony was on the edge, yet M. L. deliberately leaves his son to deal with the loaded situation, while M. L. heads out of town, becoming unavailable for any face-to-face. In truth, Richard is as much exploited by his father M. L. as his client Tony is.

As the hostage situation goes on, a kind of cat-and-mouse relationship evolves between the two men, with the more outgoing Tony even becoming rather friendly towards Richard, in a bit of reverse Stockholm Syndrome. But whether that does Richard any good is another matter. Eventually, Tony issues his demands, which include an apology from M. L. Hall personally.

Skarsgard’s outstanding performance is supported well by the rest of the cast, including particularly Dacre Montgomery, who plays the kidnapped banker Richard Hall. All the cast are good, with Colman Domingo another strong character as the DJ drawn into the situation. The wealthy M.L. Hall is played as distracted and distant by Al Pacino, in a strong performance, and there also is a little parallel to the real-life kidnapping of millionaire J. P. Getty’s grandson here, as negotiations begin.

That shotgun wired to hostage Richard’s neck ensures tensions are constantly high, but the quirkiness of the people involved, the unpredictability of both their nature, and the situation, make this a film where you never know what will happen next. None of this goes like the typical movie hostage situation. No character feels that strangeness more keenly that Coleman Domingo’s radio DJ, recruited as a sort of hostage negotiator, a role he’d rather not play. The ambitions of the young reporter, the determination of the cops, led by Cary Elwes’ Mike Grable, to find a way out, and the pressure on everyone of being on camera and in the public eye constantly adds fuel to the incendiary situation. And remember these are real people and real events, something that Van Sant reminds the audience about by inserting actual footage of the real events.

While some may see the film as anti-capitalist, that is not quite an accurate description, as the “common man” at its center is also a businessman, even if he is not too successful. Instead, DEAD MAN’S WIRE, in part, is more commentary on the warping of the American Dream and the old American free enterprise system, an aspirational ideal in a post-WWII world marked by the Marshall Plan, but which came to a crashing end in the “greed is good” 1980s. The old free enterprise system promised a level playing field for even small businesses to compete fairly, and succeed through hard work and good ideas, rather than through a “thumb on the scale” and unscrupulous, deceitful practices. Kiritsis’ his lack of success is not due, per se, to lack of skill in business, but by the tilted playing field upon which he treads, ironically being skewed by his own lender, who in a more ethical world be his ally. Instead, his banker is concealing that his thumb is on the scale, and has plans to turn his client’s misery to his advantage. The film’s themes are less anti-capitalist than anti-unscrupulous, a condemnation of predatory business practices, contrasting human dealings versus dehumanized practices, the latter style one which Al Pacino’s morality-free character represents well.

Gus Van Sant’s DEAD MAN’S WIRE is highly entertaining as a crime thriller, as well as a technically impressive film, and enhanced by first rate performances particularly by Bill Skarsgard in what may be a career best, as well as working as historical drama and commentary on a slanted economic system.

DEAD MAN’S WIRE opens in theaters on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.

RATING: 4 out of 4 stars

THE FRONT RUNNER – Review

Hugh Jackman stars as Gary Hart in Columbia Pictures’ THE FRONT RUNNER.

Hugh Jackman gives a powerful, complex performance as Gary Hart, an idealistic and charismatic presidential candidate who seemed a shoo-in for the 1988 Democratic nomination until media frenzy over a rumor of an extramarital affair brought his campaign to an abrupt halt. If one-time presidential candidate Gary Hart is recalled at all now, it is as the politician who was so confident of his position as front-runner, that he invited the media to follow him around, which led to the discovery of an affair. That story isn’t exactly true, something Jason Reitman’s political thriller/drama THE FRONT RUNNER corrects, but Gary Hart is not the real subject of this gripping political thriller. THE FRONT RUNNER is really about the media, particularly the sudden historical point at which the way the media covered politicians changed, and what that meant for both campaign coverage and the kind of person willing to run for office,and repercussions into the present day.

Hart might be a little known figure to younger generations or only remembered as historical footnote by others but as Reitman’s thrilling film brings out, this event actually marked the moment when the ground moved, suddenly and permanently, in American politics,the turning point when tabloid media merged with mainstream journalism, a shift then further accelerated and contorted by the internet. That change impacted political campaigns and the kind of person willing to run for office, the results of which we are facing today. It makes for an astonishingly powerful and timely film and, that rarest of birds, one that speaks to both sides of the current political divide.

In 1987, the Colorado senator brought a Western freshness and a mix of bold new ideas, intelligence and youthful energy that particularly inspired young voters, and seemed to make him a lock for the Democratic nomination as well as a strong contender for the presidency. Hart’s meteoric rise and youthful appeal seemed to make him unstoppable but it all came crashing down after reports that the married senator might be having an affair, with a beautiful model named Donna Rice (Sara Paxton), whom he met aboard a campaign donor’s yacht named Monkey Business. The report sparked a news frenzy that brought down Hart’s campaign and ended his political ambitions forever.

Now it seems mindbogglingly dumb that any politician, much less a presidential hopeful, would set foot on a yacht named Monkey Business but the way the media covered politicians was far different in those days, as we learn in this insightful film. Director Jason Reitman tells this story like a thriller, with all the tension that implies, spooling out the facts step-wise and looking behind the curtain of both the campaign and the media. The script was co-written by Reitman, political journalist Matt Bai and former political consultant Jay Carson, based on Matt Bai’s book “All the Truth is Out.” Jay Carson was a creative consultant on “House of Cards,” and might know a thing or two about creating gripping political drama. The Oscar-nominated Reitman has tackled big subjects impacting society before, in THANK YOU FOR SMOKING, JUNO, and UP IN THE AIR. He immediately saw the larger significance of Gary Hart’s story after hearing Matt Bai discussing his book on the podcast Radiolab.

Although there is a serious story underneath, this is an entertaining, engrossing film to watch. Jackman is outstanding in this dramatic role, playing Hart as a gifted candidate who was inspiring to young voters in particular but a personal enigma. Jackman’s Hart is an idealistic, even brilliant man who is eager to discuss new solutions to difficult problems but was more reticent about his personal life. JK Simmons plays Bill Dixon, Gary Hart’s campaign manager, while Alfred Molina plays Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee. Vera Farmiga gives a nearly show-stealing turn as Hart’s wife Lee, a smart, no-nonsense woman with a complicated marriage who preferred to avoid the spotlight.

The film mostly runs on two tracks, the Hart campaign and the media covering him, and periodically a third one of Hart’s family. Each has an ensemble of characters that explore this story and its significant turning point in history. Reitman is less concerned about whether there was an actual affair or not rather and more with the media response to rumors of one. Jackman’s very private Hart does not respond well to prying personal questions and a momentary flash of temper with an off-hand remark to one set of journalists seems to have given an opening to media intrusion into his private life by others. Hart remains focused on policy ideas, unaware of how the rules of the American political world have just shifted, changing even as he speaks.

Reitman often uses a hand-held camera to create of sense of intimacy in both the campaign and new media camps. He also uses overlapping dialog and a kinetic pace to create a sense of realism. The film makes no judgments, remaining neutral, and the point of view shifts throughout. The style of the film at times suggests the dark humor of the 1972 political satire THE CANDIDATE and also Robert Altman’s ensemble social commentary films, in which the viewer must decide which speaker is important in a scene.

This film is less about this one candidate than about the seismic shift in the media echoes into today. That change was brought on by the growth of the 24-hour news cycle, started by the debut of cable news, followed by the breakdown of the hard lines that once separated serious journalism and its policy-focused coverage of public affairs, from tabloid journalism and its gossipy coverage of celebrities. The Gary Hart campaign represented the first major breach in that dam.

The focus on the change in media coverage of politics makes this drama surprisingly contemporary, and more surprisingly, a rare topic on which people on both sides of the current political divide can agree – the toxic shift from issues to personality, from in-depth coverage to chasing the latest shiny object, the pressure to be first to break a story overwhelming the journalistic command to be certain to get the facts right first A quote from Hart used in the film sums up the shift: “Politics in this country – take it from me – is on the verge of becoming another form of athletic competition or sporting match.”

Not that scandals about politician’s extra-marital affairs were never covered, just that the rules about reporting them were different prior to Gary Hart. Politicians used to have to pretty much carry on in public, or fall into the Potomac River with a stripper, to get in the papers. Discreet private behavior was not reported, and presidents especially were give a wide aisle of privacy, with few photos of FDR in his wheelchair and turning a blind eye to affairs of Kennedy and LBJ. In the case of Hart, it wasn’t even clear there was an affair, just the suggestion of one. It didn’t matter though, because times had changed and Hart was caught in the tidal wave as tabloid entertainment merged with mainstream political journalism, in the same year that saw the emergence of mobile new trucks, satellite broadcasting and the debut of TV’s gossip show “A Current Affair.”

This gripping thriller/drama should garner some Oscar buzz for Hugh Jackman, and perhaps finally win Jason Reitman an Oscar. THE FRONT RUNNER opens Wednesday, Nov. 21, at Landmark’s Tivoli Theater and other theaters.

RATING: 5 out of 5 stars