BrandonAtRandom Reviews
âThe Guiltyâ
It just dawned on me that Iâm actually a pretty big Jake Gyllenhaal fan. I havenât seen many of his movies that I havenât liked and I feel like he always acts spectacularly well. Donnie Darko? Love it. Nightcrawler? He fucking made that whole movie. Zodiac? Omg love it too. Source Code, Prisoners, October Sky? Hell yes.
Thatâs the thing with âThe Guiltyâ is heâs carrying this movie on his shoulders and it blows me away. It has a real âRear Windowâ energy which is one of my fav movies ever! EVER. Jake G plays a 911 operator/former cop who is forced to remain where he is atâŚdispatch or whatever itâs called while another kind of an emergency is unfurling in the midst of California wildfires, so heâs not getting a ton of help. He also keeps getting pulled away into his own life where he has some stressful shit going on but we donât understand what that is until late.
For those of you who arenât familiar with âRear Windowâ, first off, fucking watch it, but second itâs a story about a man who is in huge leg casts in a wheelchair who becomes obsessed with the goings on around his apartment complex and he watches everything thatâs happening and he suspects one of his neighbors across the way of murder but heâs fucking helpless to do anything about it and heâs just watching the pieces come together. This movie is told exclusively from Gyllenhaalâs POV and you get a similar feeling of helplessness as you try to come to grips with whatâs going on and I love it.
This movie is a lot to take in, and it has some disturbing subject matter so if you canât take the heat, stay out of the kitchen basically. Jake G knocks it out of the park as usual, honestly his performance shouldâve merited Oscar consideration imo. And the other people he interacts with both on the phone and at the station are spectacular. Apparently among those other people on the phone are Ethan Hawke and Paul Dano which was a neat surprise.
My goodness, did I ever love this film. Available on Netflix. This is why Iâm so hooked on Hollywood, I canât get enough. Fuck yeah.
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âBroken people save broken people.â












