White Lotus star unveils ‘ridiculous’ new thriller

White Lotus’ Meghann Fahy stars in an entertainingly exploited whodunnit, Drop, while the sweaty, sensual and sonically sinister Sinners executes a sudden mood swing for Michael B. Jordan.

With a high-tech, lowbrow thriller that produces a whole rollercoaster ride of reactions, a 1930s-set gangster movie that suddenly develops some late bite, and a solidly engrossing recounting of an Australian journalist’s detention in Egypt, there is something for everyone at the movies this week.

DROP (MA15+)

Meghan Fahy as Violet in Drop.

General release

This is such a clever little movie: a high-tech, lowbrow thriller that can continually raise or reduce your pulse rate with the greatest of (un)ease. Better still, the whole rollercoaster ride of reactions Drop so effortlessly elicits is all over well inside 90 minutes.

The principal setting is a swanky restaurant atop a Chicago high-rise, where a woman navigates her way through what can only be described as the first date from hell. The problem for single-mum Violet (Meghann Fahy, a breakout star from series 2 of The White Lotus) is not her choice of partner for the evening. Hunky photographer Henry (Brandon Sklenar) is every bit as charmingly wrapped a box of guy-candy as Violet had hoped.

Violet and Henry (Brandon Sklenar).

No, the problem here are the messages Violet keeps receiving every other minute from a location-based file-transfer app on her phone. Someone within a 12m radius of her table is issuing threats and instructions which Violet is compelled to obey. If she does not, the young child she has left at home will be in mortal danger. And if Henry finds out the real reason why Violet is incessantly checking her device, he too will go down on the mortal danger list. Perhaps right there on the spot.  

If this premise sounds ridiculous, just wait until you see it happening. Nevertheless, the whodunnit and why-do-it factors in play are so expertly and entertainingly exploited throughout that you just have to go with the frenzied flow of it all. Drop will continually get a rise out of you in all the right ways.  

SINNERS (MA15+)

Michael B. Jordan as Smoke and Stack in Sinners.

Director: Ryan Coogler (Creed) 

Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Miles Caton, Hailee Steinfeld, Delroy Lindo

After a big night out, a big bite out

The first of so many notable aspects of Sinners is that it is the third major movie of the past month in which the same leading man is playing two or more leading roles.

Just like Robert De Niro in The Alto Knights and Robert Pattinson in Mickey 17, the great Michael B. Jordan (Creed) goes on double-duty for the duration here.

That’s him in just about every scene of this 1930s-set affair as Smoke and Stack, identical-twin gangsters who have recently pocketed a fortune while working as henchmen for the mobster Al Capone in Chicago.

As Sinners begins, this sharp-dressed, tough-talking pair have recently made their way south to their hometown in Mississippi, where they are just about to commence a relatively legitimate new business venture.

In fact, this exact evening marks opening night at Smokestack, a pay-at-the-door ‘juke joint’ where the booze and the blues will flow freely from dusk ’til dawn.

Opening night for Smokestack might also go down as a closing night.

The star attraction will be their nephew Preacher Boy (newcomer Miles Caton), a gifted guitar prodigy whose fingers strut the strings as if tracing the border between heaven and hell.

Just about everybody in town will be there for the singing, the dancing and the drinking.

However, it will be the sudden arrival of three mysterious customers from parts unknown that triggers the possibility this opening night for Smokestack might also go down as a closing night.

Under the ambitious direction of Jordan’s regular filmmaking collaborator Ryan Coogler, Sinners goes for broke from the get-go, conjuring an atmosphere rich with sweat, sensuality, and the sinister sonic beauty of the slide guitar.

In an often transfixing first hour, Sinners shapes as a movie you are not just looking at, but living deep within.

Then comes the second hour, and a swiftly executed mood swing that remixes what was initially a vividly flavoured cocktail of drama and music into a completely different brew.  

How different?  All of a sudden, Sinners becomes a vampire movie.  How and why we arrive at this strange cinematic crossroads is best experienced in the moment.  

All of a sudden, Sinners becomes a vampire movie.

While not everyone will appreciate this jolting change in direction, those willing to keep going along for the rest of the Sinners journey will be mighty glad (and yes, mighty grossed-out) they chose to do so.

Definitely an acquired taste, but thanks to Jordan’s charismatic display (and some bewitching song sequences), an undeniably memorable experience.

Sinners is now showing in general release 

THE CORRESPONDENT (M)

Richard Roxburgh in The Correspondent.

Selected cinemas

A solidly engrossing recounting of the extraordinary case of Peter Greste, the Australian journalist detained and prosecuted by Egyptian authorities while working for the Al-Jazeera news service in 2013. Greste was merely temporarily filling in for a colleague to cover a period of sustained unrest in Cairo. However, the powers-that-be back then believed Greste and his two-man production crew were “acting in the interests of enemies of the state”  

The movie works through the political and personal complexities of Greste’s often-enigmatic ordeal with a clear eye for detail and an admirable intent to stick to the facts (however uncinematic they may turn out to be).

Considering a major portion of the running time takes place either in prison or the courtroom, what ultimately lifts the movie above its scenic limitations is a nuanced lead performance from Richard Roxburgh. Through both extensive research and refined instinct, Roxburgh achieves a highly perceptive reading of Greste, often communicating a deep angst and inspiring resolve that a clunkily-written screenplay cannot.

Originally published as White Lotus star unveils ‘ridiculous’ new thriller