After making a modest splash in festivals last year garnering a few fans, Night Moves didn't gel to the public as neatly upon its release. It's easy to see, it's not an immediately rewarding film and you have to be in the mood for its slow burn. Fortunately I was and I loved its aesthetic. It's not exactly Blue Ruin, but why can't all films these days look like this? Although it deliberately pushes us away from the characters keeping its cards close to its chest, it quietly holds tension throughout, even after the intelligently anticlimactic deed is done. It's quite well written and patient, with characters having to be resourceful to get out of real conflict, it showcases the finest points of the acting. It's certainly an improvement on Reichardt's unconvincing 'Western' Meek's Cutoff which was a chore to get through. This has something ambiguous to say about the morality of environmental radicals. However, it's such a shame that it delegates itself to paranoid clichés and weak open endings in its final 15 minutes when even Jesse Eisenberg doesn't know what to do with the material he's given that it holds the whole film back and leaves it on a sour note. It's whole second half slowed down to a halt to a point where it really depended on how it ended and it let itself down. Still a solid film though.
7/10
7/10