Karyn Kusama directs Nicole Kidman, Toby Kebbell and Sebastian Stan in this neo-noir where a self-destructive L.A. cop pursues demons from her corrupt past.

This is a flawed film – often dull, cliched and hard to warm to. But I’m going to give it a pass. Kidman plays against type and convinces. There are two really intense heist sequences that echo the quality and immersion of Point Break. There’s even quite a good rug pull at the end… I’m rarely caught off guard by a twist. It has the structure of a classic L.A. detective novel… Kidman’s grizzled cop chases down leads from the sleazy dying, the relaxed corrupt, the mansion-bound powerful in a way that echoes the plotting of hard boiled masters like Chandler or Hammett. This is the shit I like. Now there’s a lot of reaching and affectation of importance that slows things down and dilutes the good stuff. Let pulp be pulp… even if you have a classy thesp slumming it in the lead. Yet I’d watch this again a decade down the road. Hence the score of…

7

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We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/