Nitram (2020) - Justin Kurzel

​A slow, simmering true crime story that works best when it embraces its underlying idiosyncrasies and amorphous structure to provide a portrait of mental desolation detached from assured social critique. Nitram has a lot to admire, featuring two strong central performances by Caleb Landry Jones & Judy Davis, as well as an acute directorial vision by Kurzel, yet in some respects this is a film that betrays its best proclivities, beginning as an observational study of uncomfortable realities only to divulge into something far too assured in its denouement. Expounding instead of conversing about the extremely complex nature of such acts of violence and opting instead for a pretty simplistic denouement via intertitles in which the object itself is blamed instead of the culmination of many complex social realities, Nitram feels a little exploitative to be honest, Ultimately perfunctory in its examination of gun violence and societal ills that lead to such horror, Nitram's strongest attributes are tied to the ways it manages to elucidate affect. Whether through the uncomfortable, unstable psyche of its central subject or the maternal relationship that rests at the fulcrum of this story, Nitram's emotional core did work for me, aiding in grounding the film's more pointed provocations and thematic assuredness into something that on an emotional level was deeply felt.