Three to see at LFF 2017 if you like... thrillers

The new film from an established director…

You Were Never Really Here

You Were Never Really Here (2017)

What’s it about?

Now working as a private detective, Joe (Joaquin Phoenix) is a former FBI agent and Gulf War veteran who specialises in tracking down runaway teens. His latest case involves the daughter of a New York senator, which brings Joe into contact with a secret high-level child-trafficking ring.

Who made it?

Since making her debut with Ratcatcher (1999), Glasgow’s Lynne Ramsay has been a singular voice on the film scene, creating a series of impressionistic but tightly plotted character studies, including Morvern Callar (2002) and We Need to Talk about Kevin (2011).

What’s special about it?

The mercurial presence of Joaquin Phoenix – here, overweight and scruffily bearded, yet no less formidable for that – is just one of many reasons to catch this slow-burning revenge thriller. Another is Lynne Ramsay’s methodical but subtle direction, which, like the deceptively complex We Need To Talk about Kevin, expertly drip-feeds plot points and character motivation with a near-brutal economy. A third is the superb score by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, which pulses, grows and shrinks like a sonic amoeba, mirroring Joe’s fluid grip on his identity and self-worth after having his humanity crushed while fighting on the front lines of war and hometown criminality.

See this if you like…

Taxi Driver, The Master, Only God Forgives, Old Boy

The breakthrough…

Bad Genius

Bad Genius (2017)

What’s it about?

Lynn (Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying) is an outstanding bursary student from a struggling single-parent background who seems to be in trouble with the police. Interrogated with her friends in a series of interviews, Lynn is accused of orchestrating mass exam cheating at her fashionable private school in Bangkok. The cherubic Lynn denies everything. But then, she would, wouldn’t she?

Who made it?

Surprisingly, Bad Genius is only director Nattawut Poonpiriya’s second feature (after the 2012 horror thriller Countdown) and its leading lady’s acting debut. But although his films couldn’t be further removed from the lyrical deliriums of Thai cinema’s most famous son, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, this twisty thriller should see Poonpiriya getting similar international attention.

What’s special about it?

On a surface level, Bad Genius operates as both a sophisticated modern teen movie and an excellent, edge-of-the-seat heist movie, albeit one with more relatable stakes – in place of bullion, cash or jewellery, the booty here is academic success, with class genius Lynn generously helping out her not-so-smart but extremely wealthy schoolmates.

Yet Nattawut Poonpiriya’s film also challenges the whole idea of education as commodity, with Lynn a modern day Robin Hood, calling out her money-grabbing elite school’s hypocrisy and stealing grades on behalf of the intellectually disadvantaged.

See this if you like…

Catch Me if You Can, The Usual Suspects, Brick

The wild card…

Verónica

Veronica Above (2017)

What’s it about?

Loosely based on real events, this artfully enigmatic mystery begins in 1991, with police being called to a home invasion in Madrid. The film then backtracks to the days before, which see school student Verónica (Sandra Escacena) using a Ouija board to contact her dead father. Needless to say, this does not end well…

Who made it?

Director Paco Plaza is better known, alongside Jame Balagueró, as one half of the team behind found-footage zombie movie [Rec] (2007). Admirers of Spanish genre films should also note the involvement of producers Apaches Entertainment, who work with Juan Antonio Bayona, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo and Nacho Vigalondo.

What’s special about it?

Unlike many films of its kind, Verónica is very slow to show its hand. Is it a psychological thriller or a supernatural horror? For a long time, Paco Plaza plays it expertly coy, obeying the laws of realism while frequently veering off at chilling tangents.

Star Sandra Escacena is the key here, an ordinary girl in extraordinary circumstances, and Plaza uses that surface normality to his advantage as Verónica sees strange gothic portents and experiences terrifying demonic presences. Has she really opened a portal to the other world? Or is she just a confused, bereaved adolescent? You’ll just have to see it to find out.

See this if you like…

Insidious, The Conjuring, Repulsion, anything by Blumhouse, The Orphanage