In this sexy thriller a photographer (Adam Wingard) who specializes in erotic photo shoots is suspected of murder when one of his models is found dead.
When starring Adam Wingard and written-directed by Joe Swanberg, you expect AJ Bowen or Ti West to show up somewhere, but not this time. Wingard's directing has been hit and miss, so it was nice to see Swanberg at the helm this time. He knows how to make a simple picture look good. Audiences might get drawn in immediately from the really sweet opening credits sequence, sort of going for a neo-noir look.
Some critics have called this a "soft-core porn", and one threesome scene does come across as quite gratuitous, not to mention the countless other times nudity comes into play. Was this necessary? Probably not. But it does effectively drive home the theme of jealousy, as it puts us right in the middle of the emotion: a photographer, even if completely innocent, runs the risk of making his significant other jealous. And this goes well beyond photography.
Most reviewers were mixed to negative. One exception was Evan Dickson of Bloody Disgusting, who rated the movie 3.5/5 stars and wrote, "As a rule, if you hate what most people consider to be mumblecore, this isn't the movie for you. But if you're open to this somewhat shambolic riff on noir, you might find yourself pleasantly surprised." Regardless of what is "mumblecore" or not, this film stands on its own merits. Maybe the merits are not that strong and that makes it hard for the film to stand, but different viewers may take away different things from it. While clearly not the best in independent horror-thrillers being made today, it is far from the worst.
