Reptile: Benicio del Toro leads the investigation in this dark thriller with a Fincherian feel

We no longer present Benicio del Toro. Established in Hollywood for over thirty years (James Bond fans will remember one of his first roles alongside Timothy Dalton in License to kill in 1989), the native of Puerto Rico notably rose to fame in the 1990s with the cult Usual Suspects (1995) or Las Vegas Paranoid (which could have ruined his career) three years later. Before winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for the virtuoso Traffic (2000). The actor is used to thrillers or dark dramas: evidenced by his scores in The Pledge, Huntedor 21 grams. A little more discreet in recent years, he had found a role suited to him in Sicario in 2015 and its sequel, three years later. He finds the thriller with Reptileavailable on Netflix since Friday September 29, 2023.

Reptile : a well-oiled mechanism

The film was undoubtedly expected by fans of the genre. A classic pitch. A young real estate agent is brutally murdered. A seasoned detective leads the investigation with his teammate (Ato Essandoh). So, is the result worth a look? The answer is yes. The investigation itself is not incredibly original (you won’t fall out of your chair in the face of completely unexpected twists and turns). But the mechanics of Reptile is well oiled. From start to finish, the film has the merit of being heavy, sinister, and even suffocating. The equally heavy and stifling soundtrack by Yair Elazar Glotman has something to do with it. The first minutes and the discovery of the victim’s body (in a brief shot) set the tone. The ending doesn’t stand out from the rest. In other words, don’t expect a nice thriller.

The director of Reptile eyeing David Fincher

Many filmmakers began their careers directing music videos. Michel Gondry, for example, had cut his teeth with IAM, Björk, the Rolling Stones… several years before Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004); while David Fincher had worked with Sting, Madonna, and even Michael Jackson before revealing himself in Seven and Fight Club in the second half of the 1990s. Over the past ten years, Grant Singer has made a name for himself. name in the music video world, notably collaborating regularly with The Weeknd. For his first feature film, he succeeds rather well. The staging is neat. Reptile also seems to borrow its aesthetic from… David Fincher: through its light, its atmosphere, or its characters. The director shows a real sense of detail in his shots, playing in particular on reflections and symmetry. The slow camera movements only accentuate the feeling that something obscure is happening before our eyes.

Benicio del Toro, Alicia Silvertsone, Justin Tilmberlake, Ato Essandoh: what is the cast of Reptile ?

In front of the camera, Benicio del Toro (who also collaborated on the screenplay) finds a character that suits him perfectly. He shines with his charisma in the guise of a particularly phlegmatic detective. Nebulous elements of his past are distilled little by little, without this having any capital importance in the story. Everything plays out around him. Well accompanied, Benicio del Toro can count on the little-known but effective Ato Essandoh. His understanding with Alicia Silverstone is also obvious. Without having a lot of time on screen, Justin Timberlake proves once again that he can act as well as dance or sing. In this small town in the United States, everyone seems to have something to hide. All the characters (or almost) reveal a less palpable form of oddity. They will only reveal themselves once the final veil is lifted. This is the meaning of the film and its name (only a snake’s molt directly alludes to it). Without equaling the esotericism of a True Detective, Reptile explores the depths of the human soul to reveal all its darkness. A few lengths do not detract from the overall success of this good thriller. Good mention.