Reptile

Movie Name: Reptile
Year of Release: 2023
Director: Grant Singer
Starring: Benicio Del Toro, Justin Timberlake, Alicia Silverstone, Eric Bogosian, Domenick Lombardozzi, Frances Fisher, Ato Essandoh, Michael Pitt, Karl Glusman, Mike Pniewski, Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz, Catherine Dyer, Thad Luckinbill, Michael Beasley, JC Capone, Sky Ferreira, James Devoti, Amy Parrish
Genre: Drama, Crime
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 6
Watch it on Netflix

Synopsis and Review

Another Netflix release, "Reptile" is the feature directorial debut from Grant Singer, who has a considerable career directing music videos for well known artists, including Ariana Grande, Troye Sivan and Sky Ferreira. The narrative focuses its attention on police detective Tom Nichols. He and his partner Dan Cleary, get involved in the case of a murder of a young woman who is the girlfriend of a well known local realtor (in the Maine area where they are). Will Grady the realtor, is distraught and confesses to the detectives that he couldn't marry the victim, Summer, since she was still legally married to someone else. Will in the meantime gets accosted by Eli Phillips, a person who was impacted by some dealings Will's family has had in the past, and who has kept a close eye on everything they've done ever since. Test results come back from Summer's forensics, which indicate she was intimately involved with her estranged husband, something that one of her friends confirms. When Tom and Dan go to his house with a warrant, he tries to escape and steals Dan's gun in the process, however Tom manages to shoot back and ends up killing him. Turns out the house where Sam Gifford was had a considerable amount of drugs in hiding. As Tom is commended for his actions, he suspects that there is more to the case than what has been uncovered thus far. Eli shows up unexpectedly at his house and Judy, Tom's wife, manages to control the situation, but in reality Eli's intention is to provide Tom with a flash drive which proves that Summer was caught up in a shady situation where Will and his mother were in reality laundering drug money. However the trail of corruption and crime doesn't stop there.

"Reptile" is an interesting feature, one that at times brings to mind the work of Sidney Lumet, particularly films such as "Prince of the City" or "Q&A". What Grant Singer is able to do with this feature, which also benefited from Benicio Del Toro's contribution on the script as a side note, is the fact that a tapestry of various characters and also contexts is successfully illustrated. The director is able to illustrate both the procedural work the detectives are going through, with the more intimate and familiar occurrences that take place in their personal lives, which gains more importance since they all form a close cluster of friendships and family ties. While the murder itself is a catalyst that jumpstarts the overall drama, what makes the film take an interesting turn is indeed the fact of how the relationships of all these professionals bleed beyond their professional interactions and actually impact their personal ones. What is less successful in this feature is the fact that for all the precision that it places into the conspiracy behind all of the events of the narrative, all the characters are bland, poorly outlined and ultimately repetitive. Some of the aspects of the film have been showcased to a better extent in the works of Martin Scorsese, Brian De Palma and even Barry Levinson, therefore the characters all come across as underdeveloped and not as interesting as they should actually be. The director doesn't push or impart a particular point of view on this genre, at least not in a similar vein to what Denis Villeneuve did with "Prisoners" or even "Sicario". The narrative keeps its momentum primarily due to the cast that features a strong array of talent, in particular Benicio Del Toro, with strong support from Alicia Silverstone, Erig Bogosian, Michael Pitt and Domenick Lombardozzi, all of whom manage to bring to life characters that are all broadly described. Justin Timberlake and Karl Glusman sadly have little to do, and Timberlake in particular fails to find much nuance in his character. The production team is a solid one, particularly the cinematography from Mike Gioulakis, and production design from Patrick M. Sullivan Jr.. It's a watchable film, one that while not bringing anything new to the table, is nonetheless worth watching.