To Catch a Killer

An amalgam of every cop cat-and-mouse thriller we've ever seen but above averagely rough around the edges. The wicked violence is neigh on gratuit and doesn't match the bland plot development. The climax doesn't exactly help this situation. On a positive note, i thought this had solid dialog and satisfying acting from my ever wholesome crush Woodley who finally gets to take a shot a being someone somber (and it's not bad!) and Mendelsohn who is no stranger to delivering good characters

Sometimes this goes off the rails narratively, but for the most part this is a serviceable thriller. Woodley is good but it's not her best work, nor her most demanding, but I like seeing her. The script does go into a little more detail in terms of procedure, which was appealing. Early on the killer was really built up into something that was more interesting than what the conclusion gave us. Entertaining but forgettable.

worth watching

Le film est bourré de sous-entendus grotesques, très actuels, qui viennent nuire au réalisme de l'expérience. Le couple homosexuel qui sort de nulle part. La viande, c'est moche. Les armes, c'est pour le Ku Klux Klan. Des nazis sérieux ? Le faux terroriste, Eleanor qui pète les plombs parce qu'un homme lui propose d'aller boire un verre. Je comprends le misanthrope, quelle époque de merde. Film trop tendancieux mais quelques morceaux de bravoure et une reproduction policière détaillée et solide.

Starts off a fairly strong procedural with some chillingly-depicted and stark violence but loses its way a bit as it goes on. Becomes a bit cringe and the eventual reveals and resolution more or less work narratively but don’t REALLY satisfy; you won’t be thinking the next day about how did the writers come up with that twist or anything. Shailene Woodley has an eternal teenage babyface and always feels kinda weird playing adult/professional characters despite being in her thirties lol.

The style, pacing and especially the banter of two leads carries a rather derivative script a few grades higher than it has any right to be. I'll browse back and will be following up this director. It's pretty hard to find movies that keeps my attention entirety of the run.

Nice piano music at the end.

The last act is bloody terrible. Spoiler ... they find the killer (I'm sure you guessed that), and the film tries a long, painfully drawn out Fincher move where the killer really tells us all about society's failings, and Woodley bonds with him because they're both so damn misanthropic. It's a tough thing to pull off without ruining the film, and neither Woodley nor director Damián Szifron are up to it.

Kind of harks back to "Copycat" and maybe even "Silence of the Lambs" in its observation of an ambitious, driven female cop pursuing a serial killer in a man's world. The set pieces are all very familiar. There is nothing new here, but it manages to be really well done without breaking the mold.

"To Catch a Killer" showcases strong performances by Shailene Woodley and Ben Mendelsohn, with an eerie atmosphere and engaging score. However, the film suffers from an exposition-heavy script, lacking nuance in tackling sensitive issues, and has some far-fetched plot points. Attempts at humor fall flat, and the forgettable title could impact marketing.

Focused on the wrong things and suffered from the old trope, where everyone in law enforcement is incompetent and the last saving grace is the unlikely disliked main character. Overall a pretty forgettable movie.

Low budget mystery/thriller filmed out of Montreal (I caught the per litre gas price in the background. It's set in Baltimore). that got some good buzz so I gave it a go tonight. Really like a lot of Mendelsohn's & Woodley's work so that was an easy setup. I find the comparison to Silence of the Lambs a bit tenuous , but this was a solid effort in its own right. It didn't always go for the easy or popular choice. Happy we watched this one. Gritty one for the adults in the room. 7.1

This movie is very detailed. If you'd like to be a cop and knows the investigative procedural that comes with it, this is a movie to add in your bucket list.