The Good Lie

MOVIE #1,773 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 07.01.24 D̷I̷R̷E̷C̷T̷O̷R̷ ̷F̷I̷L̷L̷-̷I̷N̷ ̷S̷E̷R̷I̷E̷S̷:̷ SHAWN LINDEN This has a big 90s energy (in its pacing and off-kilter plot) and one thing I’ve got to give it credit for is how vastly different it is from both Nobody and Hunter Hunter. I have one more movie to go in this impromptu fill-in focus (2023’s made-for-TV Abducted by My Teacher: The Elizabeth Thomas Story) but it honestly feels as if each film was crafted by a different director. There are also a series of four, unconnected campfire story vignettes which truly flummoxed and fascinated me in equal measure. They're either essential to the themes or simply exist to pad the run-time. I truly have no idea. The before and after / cat and mouse framing device, with the dad looking for the son, isn't a bad idea on its own (it’s vaguely reminiscent of Nobody’s oblique cause-and-effect framework).

There's just an issue with execution, as Linden really struggles to get from point A to point B in some instances (maybe should have spent less time on those spooky stories!). For example, the bit with the waitress and her gun was BAD. But it has a pretty solid twist ending and ended up being better than I expected during the opening act.

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⫷ MOVIE #1,772 - (YOU ARE HERE) - MOVIE #1,774 ⫸

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After his mother is tragically killed, a privileged young man discovers that he was the product of a vicious rape, and so he sets out to track down his sinister biological father. It was released on October 8, 2012.