Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
Corky, a tough female ex-convict working on an apartment renovation in a Chicago building, meets a couple living next door, Caesar, a paranoid mobster, and Violet, his seductive girlfriend, who is immediately attracted to her.
Bound is a stylish neo-noir debut from the Wachowskis that stands out for its sharp visual craft and boldly subversive take on the crime thriller genre. The cinematography is genuinely exceptional — inventive angles, deep shadows, and tactile close-ups that feel distinctive and assured for a first feature. The acting, particularly Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon, is committed and electric, elevating material that could have felt pulpy into something genuinely tense. Novelty is high: centering a Mafia heist thriller on a lesbian love affair with a sharp feminist undercurrent was singular for its era and executed with real voice. The plot is clever and well-constructed, though it leans on some familiar noir mechanics. The ending, while satisfying in its genre logic, is perhaps too neat and conventional given the film's otherwise subversive energy, keeping it from a higher mark in that category.