Free Fire

Brie Larson has had an exceptional couple of years or so. Oscar-winner for the breakout hit Room, future Captain Marvel (the MCU’s first female superhero to get a standalone film), a key component of another shared universe in Kong: Skull Island and the biggest draw for Ben Wheatley’s latest: Free Fire.

Bursting into the mainstream with last year’s High Rise, Wheatley is fast proving himself as a Director to keep a very beady eye on (Directors to keep an eye on are doing very well in the current climate as well with last year’s ‘one to watch’: Taika Waititi being given the chance to direct this year’s forthcoming Thor: Ragnarok.)

Free Fire is a fantastic, low-scale drama. I love these types of films which fly just under the radar but boast some big Hollywood stars (think American Ultra, a criminally under-seen indie with Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart, and Kill Your Friends with Nicholas Hoult and James Corden.)

We’re in Reservoir Dogs territory here; one warehouse setting, one shootout. A gun deal gone wrong between two parties. It’s tight and compact at just 90 minutes with no flashbacks to flesh out the characters. It’s not quite on a par with Tarantino’s all-time classic but this type of film is all too rare in the current cinematic climate.

This is an intense hour and a half, a true seat gripper. The script (written by Wheatley himself) is immaculate, dramatic at the right points, riotously funny at others. The shooting is refreshingly realistic (a shot to the leg with leave you stricken and crawling on the ground) and properly, cinematically LOUD (no wishy-washy Blockbuster stuff here.)

The cast are immaculate as well; the aforementioned Larson is joined by the always-fantastic Cillian Murphy (criminally underrated), Armie Hammer (likewise), Sam Riley (that makes a hat-trick!) and a film-stealing Sharlto Copley as the South-African arms dealer selling the weapons.

It’s violent in all the right places but not graphically so, and the set pieces that drive the film forwards come at the perfect moments (one early scene as the shooting starts, arguably, is too long but sets the character’s motives and abilities out well.)

A gem of a film, but unfortunately it won’t be seen by many. Make sure you’re one of the ones who does.

4 stars ****