The latest drama thriller movie Windfall, directed by Charlie McDowell and written by Justin Lader, Charlie McDowell, Jason Segel, and Andrew Kevin Walker starring Jesse Plemons, Lily Collins, and Jason Segel, premiered on Netflix a few days ago. The film was marketed as “a Hitchcockian thriller” and follows a man who breaks into the vacation home of a billionaire. His plan however changes when the wealthy owner (Jesse Plemons) and his wife (Lily Collins) suddenly arrive. The film centers on how the dynamics among the three unfold in this psychological thriller home invasion movie. In an interview with Vanity Fair, director Charlie McDowell shared how the idea for the film started during the pandemic.“ Andrew Kevin Walker, who wrote Se7en and works a lot with David Fincher, and Justin and Jason. The four of us are really close friends, and the idea started two months into COVID when we felt, okay, this isn’t a two-week thing. This is going to be around for a while. How do we contain a story in a single location so that we can all go stay at this place and make a movie, and have it be as safe as possible?
The film became one of the most-watched movies on Netflix during its premiere and it received mixed reviews. Despite the film’s shortcomings, IndieWire wrote in their review, how the film should be commended for “ making its flawless setting as claustrophobic for us as it is for the three characters. By the end, we’re so suffocated with gorgeous countertops, well-appointed guest casitas, Rolex watches, and zen gardens that we’re all too happy to finally escape.” Wired also published a review of the film and wrote, “Windfall is propelled by a real-life crisis: the gaping chasm between the incredibly rich and the rest of us, and the impossibility of bridging it unscathed. Despite its gleaming setting, Windfall strikes the tone of a noir, its story suffused with a cynicism as sweeping as the vistas its mansion overlooks.” If you enjoyed the slow burn thriller film and you’re looking for the next movie to binge watch that falls under the same genre, here are five of our recommendations.
Villains
Villains is a 2019 American black comedy horror film written and directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen. It stars Bill Skarsgård, Maika Monroe, Blake Baumgartner, Jeffrey Donovan, and Kyra Sedgwick. The film shares similar themes with Windfall but adds more humor as well as darker themes. It follows a pair of amateur criminals who envision themselves like Bonnie and Clyde. The couple breaks into a suburban home and as they enter what seemed to be an empty house, they uncover a dark secret that leads to cat and mouse game. The Hollywood Reporter published a review of the film saying, “The picture riffs on some memorable physical comedy from Wolf of Wall Street and recalls desperadoes ranging from Thelma and Louise to Pulp Fiction‘s Pumpkin and Honey Bunny. But Villains has enough of its own offbeat energy not to come off as just another collection of young filmmakers’ influences.”
Misery
A psychological thriller that also features hostage-taking on a different level is the 1990 film Misery directed by Rob Reiner, based on Stephen King’s 1987 novel of the same name. It stars James Caan, Kathy Bates, Lauren Bacall, Richard Farnsworth, and Frances Sternhagen. The plot follows novelist Paul Sheldon (James Caan) who gets into a serious car accident. He is rescued by former nurse Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates), who turns out to be a big fan of his novels. As he recuperates, he discovers that Annie is an obsessive fan with twisted fantasies and must now find a way to escape captivity. Bates’ performance as Annie received critical claim and won the Academy Award for Best Actress at the 63rd Academy Awards. In a review by Empire, they praised Goldman’s script and the performances of the lead actors saying, “Veteran screenwriter William Goldman expertly creates a vivid sense of reality from the situation – a bit of a first, this, for a Stephen King adaptation – and the two leads complement each other brilliantly, with Caan back on form, and Bates creating in Annie Wilkes one of the screen’s more memorable fruit-cakes.”
The Ref
Similar to Windfall, the dynamics of a robber and a couple unveil during a hostage-taking in the 1994 black comedy film The Ref. The film, directed by Ted Demme, starring Denis Leary, Judy Davis, and Kevin Spacey, follows the story of a burglar who takes hostage a dysfunctional family on Christmas Eve, The burglar gets more than he bargained for getting stuck with a bickering couple. Los Angeles Times reviewed the film and wrote, “Anchored by expert performances from Denis Leary, Judy Davis and Kevin Spacey and the appropriately biting script and direction, “The Ref” is one of those films in which everyone has a verbal stiletto out for everyone else.”
Parasite
The Oscar-winning 2019 South Korean black comedy thriller film Parasite, directed by Bong Joon-ho, takes a different course when it comes to home invasion films. The film showcases differences in social classes which is also a present theme in Windfall. Parasite stars Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Woo-shik, Park So-dam, Jang Hye-jin, and Lee Jung-eun. The film follows the poor Kim family whose lives suddenly change when their son gets a job as a tutor for the daughter of a wealthy family. The family then hatch a plan to get each member of the family into the house by working for the wealthy family posing as qualified individuals and pretending not to know each other.
Parasite received critical acclaim and won four awards at the 92nd Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature Film, making it the first non-English language film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. It also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language, and became the first non-English language film to win the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. The Guardian gave a glowing review of the film saying, “Thrillingly played by a flawless ensemble cast who hit every note and harmonic resonance of Bong and co-writer Han Jin-won’s multitonal script, it’s a tragicomic masterclass that will get under your skin and eat away at your cinematic soul.”
Bone
Another home invasion movie with a great twist in the plot is the 1972 black comedy crime film Bone, written, produced, and directed by Larry Cohen in his directorial debut. It stars Yaphet Kotto, Joyce Van Patten, and Andrew Duggan and tells the story of a criminal who invades a Beverly Hills home of a wealthy couple. However, things are not what they seem to be as he discovers something about his hostages. The Prime Sublime wrote a review about Bone and praised the film’s relevant themes saying, “Cohen’s films were known for maximizing their locations — particularly the streets of New York City — but Bone is a self-contained home invasion film that combines modest aesthetics with big ideas. However, it’s arguably the most biting movie in his socially conscious filmography, and its themes are still relevant in 2020.”
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