Reviews

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  ★★★½ review by Kevin Matthews on Letterboxd

  Rossif Sutherland stars here as John Lake, a young doctor working in Laos. He heads out one night for a big drinking session and ends up the next day with more than just a pesky hangover. He has memories of intervening between a sexual attacker and his potential victim, and the whole encounter may have ended in a violent death. Oh well, maybe he can just pack up and get out of the village before anything is discovered. Except for the fact that he’s also lost his wallet. Not quite quick enough to get away before the authorities arrive, John has to keep looking around for the first opportunity to escape. His plan is to get to an American embassy, if he can evade capture.

  What we have here is a nice, streamlined thriller that keeps things relatively simple, for the most part. It relies on the kind of lost and endangered American desperately trying to overcome the language barrier that we’ve seen in movies such as And Soon The Darkness, Turistas and Hostel. But it must be emphasised that writer-director Jamie M. Dagg doesn’t go down the same path as those movies. This is no horror film, although it features some real potential horror, and Dagg never fills the screen with caricatures or too many plot contrivances. He somehow also avoids making this a dull film, despite it being a much more realistic, but still cinematic, fugitive adventure.

  At least some of the credit must go to Sutherland and his central performance. Although I’ve not listed any other cast members here, Sutherland is not working on his own, but he’s in almost every scene and carries viewers along with him on his tense journey. And he also may be responsible for the death of someone, which says something about how likable he is when you’re still keeping your fingers crossed that he keeps managing to avoid the authorities.

  Dagg does well in both of his roles. The script has plenty of small little character details throughout, the threat of capture is ever-present, and you always feel completely immersed in the onscreen environment. And this is only his first feature, which means I hope we will have lots more to look forward to from him in the future. I’m sure many people will think this is just a bit too slight. I think it’s just right. Maybe not quite great, but very good indeed.

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  ★★★½ review by Antonio Quintero on Letterboxd

  SAW IT AT FANTASTIC FEST 2015

  This is a movie about a good man doing the right thing and having the wrong result. Its a great story about being trapped in a foreign country were you don't know anything and your wanted by the law.

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  ★★★½ review by Matt Reifschneider on Letterboxd

  On one hand, it's very refreshing for a film to simply embrace it's thriller foundation and do it in such a straightforward manner. It's simple and for that I give it mad respect. However, even when the film runs under an hour and a half, it gets a bit redundant. Run, hide, repeat. It's not until the last 10 minutes of the film does anything really pay off, but it's the emotional purge of the final 10 minutes that makes some of the more frustrating pieces of the writing worth it.

  FULL REVIEW PENDING AT BLOOD BROTHERS FILM REVIEWS.

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  ★★★★ review by Alejandro Hernández on Letterboxd

  Surprisingly tense and beautifully shot, the only thing keeping River from being excellent is its weak resolution, but I enjoyed the thrill ride.

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  ★★★½ review by klosteris on Letterboxd

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