Ruse

A stylish thriller that tries to mimic the style of an '80s David Mamet screenplay, but falls short in executing the tough-talking puzzle movie genre. The film follows the story of Tom, a soft-spoken young man played by Justice Smith, who falls for a beautiful woman named Sandra. But when Sandra reveals her brother is in trouble and needs a large sum of money, the story spirals into a series of cons and double-crosses.

While the film is enjoyable to watch, with a succession of betrayals and twists, the story and characters are shallowly drawn and the dialogue falls short of elevating the film beyond its foundation. The film also tries to be too stylish, with a sleek production and lack of danger, missing the gritty feel that is essential for a successful thriller.

Despite its flaws, "Sharper" is still a decent diversion for those who enjoy thrillers and the talented cast, especially newcomer Briana Middleton, delivers engaging performances. If you're looking for a movie that you can watch without too much thought and enjoy a series of twists, then "Sharper" is a good choice.

Sharper is a crime drama that follows four individuals involved in conspiracy, theft, and betrayal.

The plot follows a disjointed structure, where you spend four chapters with each of our main characters at different times in their lives. I really enjoyed this aspect as it made the narrative non-linear, forcing the audience to try to piece together the mystery as well as the chronological order of the film. This allure began to wear off after the third scene change, as it became quite predictable.

Our performances were pretty solid all around. Sebastian Stan is really good, and I am quite enjoying him in these more villainous roles, similar to his role in Fresh. Julian Moore and Briana Middleton were both highlights as well, their emotional range is fantastic. Justice Smith was okay at best.

Overall, this movie was an okay watch. It was paced pretty well for a two-hour runtime and had a lot of twists and turns throughout, even though the premise runs its course to absolute predictability by the third act.

Score: 64% Verdict: Decent.

Sharper didn't fail to entertain me. A perfect movie for a good evening in front of the big screen with a well written screenplay that keeps you interested in the story, and although it's a tiny bit predictable, well at least to me, it was still a good suspenseful mystery crime. It's about born con artists, about greed, about deception and betrayal, all good ingredients to make a decent movie. The acting was top and not only by the most famous actors. Everybody was believable with their performances and that's the main reason to watch this movie. The cinematography looked very professional. I wasn't expecting much of Sharper so I was pleasantly surprised.

You're not gonna see anything too groundbreaking here, but Sharper can provide some higher class thrills and intelligence. I found this film to be pretty intriguing. There's a suave style to the film that makes some of the expected story beats a little more fun. The cast is pretty noteworthy, with Sebastian Stan the standout in my opinion. He plays these mysterious characters well and is always a pleasure to watch.

This is a bit of a surprising film for A24 given it isn't quite as highbrow or bizarre as most of their stuff, but they do manage to class up a straightforward story a bit. Sharper won't blow you away with stunning plot twists, but it's a solid hit for Apple TV+.

I have to stop coming here and using User Reviews as criteria for choosing a movie... I almost didn't watch this because the reviews were blah. But it's better than you'd think if you're just reading the opinions here. It's stylish and well thought out, and the ending was "sharper" than I thought it'd be. The acting is solid, the plot is appropriately twisty, it's not overdone in any way in cinematography or directing. It's just a crisp grifter story, and if you liked movies like "Confidence," I suspect you'll like this too.

If I had one minor complaint, it's that the con artists here aren't faced with a lot of dangerous resistance through most of the story, easily finding non-threatening marks... it all looks so easy. But, as Madeline says "practice," and you get really good at it. That said, I liked the movie.