Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
When a depressed woman is burglarized, she finds a new sense of purpose by tracking down the thieves alongside her obnoxious neighbor. But they soon find themselves dangerously out of their depth against a pack of degenerate criminals.
Macon Blair's directorial debut has a genuinely distinctive voice — a darkly comic, melancholy meditation on modern rudeness and moral exhaustion that escalates into surprisingly brutal crime territory. The tonal blend of Melanie Lynskey's quiet despair, Elijah Wood's eccentric sidekick energy, and the genre's sudden lurches into gore is singular and hard to categorize neatly. The plot is serviceable but somewhat uneven as it transitions from quirky character study to violent thriller, and the ending, while tonally consistent, feels abrupt and somewhat unsatisfying rather than earned. Cinematography is competent and occasionally stylish but not especially distinctive. Overall a genuinely fresh indie voice with rough edges in execution.