Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
A getaway driver for a bank robbery realizes he has been double crossed and races to find out who betrayed him.
Wheelman is a lean, near-real-time thriller shot almost entirely from inside a car, giving it a distinctive claustrophobic immediacy reminiscent of Locke but with genre action. The in-car cinematography is genuinely impressive — tight framing, night-lit streets, and sustained tension through a largely single-location setup. The plot is functional but thin, leaning heavily on phone-call exposition and a fairly predictable double-cross structure. Frank Grillo carries the film with a gruff, physical performance that holds attention despite limited character depth. Novelty comes from the confined execution rather than any truly original story. The ending deflates somewhat, resolving the conspiracy in a rushed and unsatisfying way that doesn't match the tension built throughout.