While you may not have heard of U.K. director Christopher Smith, one look at the cast he's assembled for the gritty crime thriller Detour should be enough to pique your interest. The uber-talented trio of Tye Sheridan (Mud), Bel Powley (Diary of a Teenage Girl), and Emory Cohen (The Place Beyond the Pines) lead what looks like a take on the modern noir movies that were really popular for a while thanks to Quentin Tarantino.
The film stars Sheridan as a law student who gets mixed up with a violent grifter and his stripper companion, with the encounter leading to murder and betrayal. Here's the synopsis:
Harper (Tye Sheridan), a seemingly naive law student, obsesses over the idea that his shifty stepfather was involved in the devastating car crash that left his mother hospitalized and comatose. He drowns his suspicions in whiskey until he finds himself suddenly engrossed in conversation with volatile grifter Johnny (Emory Cohen) and his stripper companion, Cherry (Bel Powley). As daylight breaks and the haziness of promises made becomes clearer, how will Harper handle the repercussions (not to mention the violent duo—on his doorstep)? Employing a split-narrative structure to tell this tale of deception and murder, Christopher Smith takes his audience on a thrill ride full of hairpin turns, where it’s never quite clear what or who can be trusted.
Count me in. Yeah, the whole split screen thing was an overdone gimmick in the '90s but I don't mind seeing it revived for the right purpose. This could be a lot of fun. Detour hits theaters and ITunes on January 20th 2017.
