Director: Anna Kendrick
Starring: Anna Kendrick
Running Time: 94 minutes
Synopsis: The story unfolds across several timelines. In 1977, serial killer Rodney Alcala (Daniel Zovatto) pretends to be a photographer and murders a woman on the isolated plains of Wyoming. In 1971 he targets a flight attendant in New York City, and in 1979 he picks up a runaway teenager (Autumn Best) in California. In 1978, Sheryl Bradshaw (Anna Kendrick) is a struggling actress in Los Angeles. She lands a role on the television gameshow The Dating Game as the eligible woman choosing one of three batchelor contestants, one of whom is Rodney.
What Works Well: Anna Kendrick's directorial debut is a robustly assembled crime and suspense drama based on actual events. The chilling scenes of Rodney preying on vulnerable, isolated women are balanced by Sheryl's experience on the tawdry The Dating Game, where desperation is dressed up under bright lights and beamed into living rooms. The common theme is a society more than willing to exploit susceptible women but otherwise quick to delegitimize their concerns, enabling monsters to hide in plain sight. The 1970s are recreated in all the garish brown-orange wide-collars-and-broad-sideburns beauty of the decade.
What Does Not Work As Well: The focus on Sheryl is misguided, as she is at best a side presence in the bigger story, with another woman grabbing the initiative late in the third act. Unfortunately Alcala emerges as the most intriguing study, but his background and deeply damaged psychology remain unprobed. The frequent jumps in time demand some-assembly-required levels of attention.
Key Quote:
Rodney: Did you feel seen?
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