Gus Van Sant has long been drawn to troubled underdogs on the fringe of American society. It’s clear from the jump why the director of My Own Private Idaho, Drugstore Cowboy, Elephant, and Goodwill Hunting pounced on the script for Dead Man’s Wire and turned it around in mere months.
Based on a stranger-than-fiction Seventies true crime story, it’s a nerve-shredding hostage drama that boils over in an anxiety-inducing third act that will leave you sweaty-palmed — even if you know how it went down in the end.
