[imagesource: Sundance Film Festival]

It’s been a while since I took in a good thriller.

While these films can’t be viewed as escapism, the intense reactions and build in emotion that they produce are almost cathartic.

And who couldn’t use a little catharsis right now?

Throw Jude Law into the mix and you have a winner.

His latest film, The Nest, takes some complex issues and weaves them into a narrative that will, if the reviews are to be believed, have you glued to the screen.

According to IndieWire, the film is a “slow-burn” thriller, which means that you have to put the work in before you get the payoff, but it’s worth it.

The mid-eighties saga revolves around Rory (Law), an ex-commodities broker who has been living with his wife Allison (Carrie Coon) and their two kids in America to be closer to Allison’s family. As the movie begins, Rory has grown bored of chasing fortune in the U.S. and enacts a plan to return to his old firm, convincing his wife to move the family back to his native England and into an old country manor they can’t really afford.

Here’s where the thriller part comes in:

With the couple settling into their huge new property, several mini-stories unfold at once: Rory struggles to chase new profits with his ambivalent boss (a slimy Michael Culkin) while Allison settle into the drab routine of life on the farm, replete with her very own horse. Their teen daughter (Oona Roche) befriends some hard-partying locals, while their adolescent son (Charlie Shotwell) contends with bullies. Meanwhile, the creepy mansion is so cavernous and empty that it’s a wonder “The Nest” never becomes a ghost story. Instead, it’s the anti-“Schitt’s Creek” — the story of a man so keen on living a wealthy lifestyle that he decides to invent it for himself, at least until reality sets in.

Any good socialist will tell you at length about the horrors of capitalism.

The trailer is a testament to the beautifully shot film:

The Guardian is describing it as “elegantly constructed and precisely composed”, awarding four out of five stars, while Variety notes that it “plays by its own rules”.

The most intriguing review comes from SlashFilm: “The Nest is a searing, smouldering exploration of ambition, how entitlement can eat you alive from the inside, and the emptiness of life as a capitalist first and a human being second”.

The Nest will be in cinemas September 18, 2020.

[source:indiwire]