Despite how hit-or-miss much of Gus Van Sant’s filmography has been, I can’t help but have a ton of respect for how he’s constantly wildly swaying from mainstream assignments (Good Will Hunting, Milk) to arthouse experiments (Gerry, Elephant) to everything in between (the music video for Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Under the Bridge,” the second season of the Ryan Murphy series Feud). He’s made a whole career out of marching to the beat of his own drum, and Dead Man’s Wire – his first film in seven years, and one of his most entertaining at that – serves as another example of this ethos.

Working from a script from first-time feature screenwriter Austin Kolodney, Van Sant depicts the real-life 1977 Indianapolis kidnapping of mortgage broker Richard Hall (Dacre Montgomery) by aspiring entrepreneur Tony Kiritsis (Bill Skarsgård), and balances the perspectives of the various characters involved. These include Richard’s careless father M.L. (Al Pacino), a radio DJ (Colman Domingo), an exhausted detective (Cary Elwes), and a TV journalist (Myha’la).

To say more about how the story unfolds – and especially how it resolves – would spoil a bit of its stranger-than-fiction magic. I didn’t know any of the story going in myself. But even if you happen to, the playfulness that Van Sant and his group of collaborators brings to this tale will pull you in anyway. Just as this manages to work as a timely portrait of how capitalism’s crippling effects can drive someone to the edge (in the age of Luigi Mangione, it feels more fitting than ever than this has arrived), and how the media can sensationalize events like this (which recalls Van Sant’s own To Die For), it also just plainly works as a loving homage to 70s crime thrillers. It comes complete with the grainy, sometimes claustrophobic camerawork and editing techniques (both nicely handled by cinematographer Arnaud Potier and editor Saar Klein respectively) that populated some of these classics, not to mention the various period-accurate needle drops (including Gil Scott-Heron’s “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”).

The echoes to Dog Day Afternoon – which coincidentally opened two years before the year this film is set in – are obvious, and not just in Pacino’s casting as a figure very far away from Sonny Wortzik. Kiritsis – the Sonny in this situation, speaking of – is vividly portrayed by Skarsgård, in a performance that’s simultaneously sympathetic and menacing; so much so that it almost doesn’t matter that he doesn’t look very much like the real guy himself. The same can be said for Montgomery, whose subdued, lanky portrayal of Hall further sheds the heartthrob persona he cultivated early on in his career.

Of course, the supporting players shine as well. Domingo is as charismatic as ever, instantly believable as the “Voice of Indianapolis” (inspired by real-life radio reporter Fred Heckman, a trusted voice in the city at that time). Elwes is nearly unrecognizable, and Myha’la sells the persistence of her character, who very much sees this as a ticket to bigger things (which the film satirically plays up).

Dead Man’s Wire isn’t without its flaws, of course. Not all of its (darkly) humourous moments connect, and occasionally its playful nature can undercut the tension towards the latter half. But these are small hangups for what is otherwise a relative return-to-form for Van Sant, who (as mentioned before) is famously hit-or-miss. One can only hope that this marks the beginning of a late-period creative renaissance.

Watch the trailer right here.

All images via Row K Entertainment.

Directed by Gus Van Sant
Screenplay by Austin Kolodney
Produced by Cassian Elwes, Joel David Moore, Tom Culliver, Veronica Radaelli, Sam Pressman, Mark Amin, Remi Alfallah, Noor Alfallah, Siena Oberman, Andrea Bucko, Matt Murphie, Paula Paizes, Justin Hurley
Starring Bill Skarsgård, Dacre Montgomery, Cary Elwes, Myha’la, Colman Domingo, Al Pacino
Premiere Date: September 2, 2025 (Venice)
Running Time: 105 minutese

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Jack Cox