Joshua Marston has built a strong career with a steady résumé of intense television episodes, along with two devastating features (Maria Full of Grace and The Forgiveness of Blood). He seems to be shifting gears with his latest, a thriller called Complete Unknown.
Rachel Weisz, whose incredible work has gone mostly ignored since she won an Oscar for The Constant Gardener, stars as Alice. She shows up at a party for Tom (Michael Shannon). She introduces herself for the first time, but he remembers her from his past. They had a relationship – back when she went by Jenny – before she up and disappeared. Is their meeting coincidence, or does she have a sinister intent?
The cast also includes Danny Glover and Kathy Bates. I'm getting a lo-fi Gone Girl vibe from its femme fatale lead and its shadowy cinematography. And since that's one of my favorite movies of the decade so far, I'm all in.
Complete Unknown opens in limited release on August 25.
About Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about.
I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague.
Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work.
In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo.
I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.
