Blue Caprice (2013)
Average Rating: 7.4/10
Reviews Counted: 63
Fresh: 54 | Rotten: 9
Smart, sobering, and quietly chilling, Blue Caprice uses its horrible true-life story -- and some solid performances -- to underscore the dreadful banality of evil.
Average Rating: 7.3/10
Critic Reviews: 25
Fresh: 19 | Rotten: 6
Smart, sobering, and quietly chilling, Blue Caprice uses its horrible true-life story -- and some solid performances -- to underscore the dreadful banality of evil.
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Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 3,563
Movie Info
The striking feature film debut of writer-director Alexandre Moors, BLUE CAPRICE is a harrowing yet restrained psychological thriller about an abandoned boy lured to America into the shadows of a dangerous father figure. Inspired by true events, BLUE CAPRICE investigates the notorious and horrific Beltway sniper attacks from the point of view of the two killers, whose distorted father-son relationship facilitated their long and bloody journey across America. Marked by captivating performances by
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Cast
-
Isaiah Washington
John Allen Muhammad -
Tequan Richmond
Lee Boyd Malvo -
Tim Blake Nelson
Ray -
Joey Lauren Adams
Jamie -
Cassandra F. Freeman
Angela -
Leo Fitzpatrick
Arms Dealer -
Linda Powell
Case Worker -
April Yvette Thompso...
Lee's Mother -
Ron Simons
Store Manager -
Al Sapienza
Detective Harper
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All Critics (63) | Top Critics (25) | Fresh (54) | Rotten (9)
This lyrical, frightening film is a portrait of a man consumed by self-hatred who decided to take it out on the world.
Top CriticIf Moors and Porto were aiming for gun-debate relevance, they've failed; "Blue Caprice" has nothing to say about a society plagued by violence, nor does it focus on mental illness as a probable cause.
The film's a character piece with a tightening noose of suspense, and while it has its artsy-indie-dawdly moments, it's disturbing in ways that aren't easy to shake.
"Blue Caprice" doesn't offer the sense of catharsis or closure, let alone new information, that makes it more than a cold, if disciplined, directorial exercise.
Although the actors are fine, writer-director Alexandre Moors's feature debut suffers from a lulling tonal sameness.
Moors is neither showy nor exploitative in his telling of the story. He just lays out the details, making "Blue Caprice" not just a story of horror, but of tragedy.
The film creates one of the most chillingly becalmed portraits of insanity I've seen.
Thanks to his tone poem approach and desire to evoke instead of explain, Moors makes Blue Caprice a sensational study in subtle psychopathology.
It smartly avoids trying to make some grand political statement, while also not turning the perpetrators into victims. It's more concerned with the psychology leading up to the crime than the physical violence.
In presenting no easy answers or a clear motive for the actions of our two doomed leads, Blue Caprice paints a portrait of disillusionment gone awry and a bond steeped in impending tragedy.
A compelling depiction of psychological decline.
Very well done, if a bit relentlessly grim.
Director-writer Alexandre Moors, a Parisian living in New York, builds a credible narrative story of the killer team in the months before their death spree.
The movie never gets beyond the most iconic image that gives it a name; never digging deep enough into these characters to register as something human instead of a filmmaking experiment.
Wonders how something like this happens without suggesting any simple means of prevention.
Would be a moving and sweet depiction of the growing bond between a father and his adopted son if it weren't actually about mass murder.
Audience Reviews for Blue Caprice
Super Reviewer
Character development is superficial and toss aside with nothing making up for it. Secondary characters suffer the same problem being introduced for no real purpose. It's intent on keeping the meaning ambiguous hurts it more than it does help. The scripts main focus is the buildup to the sniping terror, focusing on the bond established between Muhammad & Malvo. When it chooses to spend time in this area it glimpses something that resemble reality. A tragic story that's more complex than what we're given to work with. It curiously glosses over the terror they caused, disconnecting the shooters from the shot. Anyone unfamiliar with this story might think these two went crazy for a couple of days and then were caught. At the end you'll wonder what was the point that the film was meant to get across. Not enough development was given to explore the shooters departure from being citizens to becoming serial killers. Nothing from the main characters or secondary characters hinted at providing social commentary. There is a story worth telling in "Blue Caprice", but missing is any sort of meaning or goal it meant to be achieve.
Tequan Richmond who plays Malvo is a skilled young actor. Richmond conveys a lack of emotion in a character who rarely speaks of feelings. His exterior is difficult to read yet not too distant for an appropriate cold portrayal in a role that could have easily made any actor be wooden. Isaiah Washington is exteriorly more expressive. Portraying a man's inner rage who even under his calm exterior remains unsettling. Being both a charismatic person who's a joy to be around and a very disturbed man sanity you worry about. On a technical level Alexandre Moors is consistent. Restraint from showing any assassination scene and more focus on the actor expressions. It works showing his actors coldness, but as a storyteller decisions like this telegraphed distorts any significance that might be gain.
Blue Caprice is a caricature depiction of a tragedy without an exploration into anything meaningful. Nothing here provides much thoughts into the psyche of the sniper making whatever point it was aiming for easy to miss. If a single word was use to describe the film it would be nothing. The viewer is not given anything to analyze even in the simplest of ways nor it is a dreadful film in any way. A flawed film that showcases great talent, but provides little worth thinking about afterwards.
Super Reviewer
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| Why isn't this film gaining any buzz? | 16 days ago | 4 |
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