A Single Shot (2013)
Average Rating: 5.8/10
Reviews Counted: 41
Fresh: 21 | Rotten: 20
It has a bleak sense of atmosphere and a terrific performance by Sam Rockwell, but A Single Shot is undercut by its predictable story and slow pace.
Average Rating: 5.5/10
Critic Reviews: 15
Fresh: 6 | Rotten: 9
It has a bleak sense of atmosphere and a terrific performance by Sam Rockwell, but A Single Shot is undercut by its predictable story and slow pace.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 2,117
Movie Info
David M. Rosenthal's backwoods thriller starts with a bang: a single shot, aimed at a lone deer, that hits and kills a young woman. The hunter, John Moon (Sam Rockwell, SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS), watches her die before discovering a box of money near her body. In a desperate panic, he takes the cash - hiring a low-rent lawyer (William H. Macy, FARGO) to fight his wife's (Kelly Reilly, FLIGHT) divorce suit - and attempts to cover up the killing. But when he discovers that the money belonged to a group
Sep 20, 2013 Limited
Single Shot Productions
- Official Site
Watch It Now
Cast
-
Sam Rockwell
John Moon -
Jeffrey Wright
Simon -
William H. Macy
Pitt -
Kelly Reilly
Jess -
Jason Isaacs
Waylon -
Joe Anderson
Obadiah -
Ophelia Lovibond
Abbie -
W. Earl Brown
Puffy -
Ted Levine
Cecil -
Amy Sloan
Carla -
Jenica Bergere
Colette -
Heather Lind
Mincy -
Christie Burke
Dead Girl Ingrid -
Marcel Maillard
Toothless Man -
Alan C. Peterson
Howard -
Michael Eisner
Levi Dean -
Beckham Skodje
Nolan -
Alex Diakun
Skinny
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A Single Shot Trailer & Photos
All Critics (41) | Top Critics (15) | Fresh (21) | Rotten (20)
An odd mix of beautifully bleak atmosphere and hammily mannered performances, "A Single Shot" is simultaneously understated and overpowering.
Top CriticBoth predictable and outlandish.
"A Single Shot" is a singular pleasure, and worth seeking out.
None of these characters, no matter how trashed-up for the down-market occasion, are believable.
The back story disappoints less for its convoluted nature than for its failure to create a convincing set of motivations for its characters.
There at the center of the film is Rockwell, as good an actor as there is working today.
A fascinating lead character can't overcome the familiarity of this atmospheric low-budget thriller.
The movie's general weariness - nothing happy happens here - transitions from tasteful to overbearing.
Lands somewhere between a good novel and a deadly country song, all with the power to take hold and refuse to leave you be.
A Single Shot assembles an outstanding, mostly under-appreciated, cast and with them crafts a tense, disquieting gothic fable led by the always preeminent Sam Rockwell.
A Single Shot does not add up to anywhere near the sum of its parts, and as individually impressive as any of those parts might be (Rockwell), we are left with a film that, if not quite a Frankenstein's monster, is certainly patchworky.
When the plot kicks in, and people actually start talking to each other, the film loses most of its momentum, but it still has enough sections of terse, pointed physicality that the overriding sensation of brute, blunt force rarely lets up.
Hillbilly noir, great cast, dueling beards.
It's Rockwell - and Rockwell alone - who makes "A Single Shot" count.
It's a small story, but it's tied into the part of America that's been affected by larger financial instability, the corruption of drugs, and the lack of education and opportunity.
I'd go as far as to rank A Single Shot among Sam Rockwell's Top 10 performances.
The plot is predictable, but it takes almost two hours to tell because everyone has to chop their way through so much atmosphere.
Sam Rockwell is one of Hollywood's most underrated actors and he shows why that's the case again in A Single Shot, a rural, neo-noir thriller that slowly pulls the viewer under its veil of mystery.
Sam Rockwell delivers another outstanding performance in this saturnine meditation on greed set in backwoods Appalachia.
Audience Reviews for A Single Shot
read the whole review at thecodeiszeek.com
Super Reviewer
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The film successfully manages to create a dark, eerie backwoods setting. Almost every shot screams atmosphere. This certainly helps to maintain a consistent mood. Yet where the film focuses on its mood, it loses focus in its narrative. There are several tangents that serve little to no purpose in the plot. 15 minutes could have easily been left in the editing room and the story would have been more effective and tightly composed. If you're a fan of Sam Rockwell or dark psychological thrillers, there might be some redeeming qualities here, but A Single Shot will not linger in your mind once its over.