When someone is “cancelled” in popular culture, their career goes into a tailspin, perhaps never to recover.  That hasn’t happened to Mel Gibson, who had a very public meltdown about twenty years ago but who has continued to act — and direct — in several high profile films, although the movies he appears in are much lesser grade these days.  This thriller, made in 2022, is a Mel Gibson I have just stumbled across, not knowing about it at all, and it is an intriguing misfire.  But its failures are not due to Mel Gibson, who is pretty good.  I still like Mel as an actor; he takes risks, he isn’t afraid to appear foolish and he’s very relatable.  But this movie should have been better.

Romauld Boulanger’s thriller imagines that Los Angeles midnight shift radio host Elvis Cooney (Mel Gibson) has a very bad night on the air.  His new producer, Dylan (William Moseley) is a rookie, his producer Sam (Nadia Farès) scolds him for his recklessness and then a random caller named Gary threatens to break into Elvis’ house and kill his family, live on the air.  Soon Elvis learns that Gary is not at his house, but in the radio station and that everyone is in grave danger.  But not everything is what it seems, and nobody knows what is really going on.

This plays like a straight thriller for a long time, and it works pretty well.  Some genuinely harrowing moments blend with dark comedy and insult humor to create an urban horror film that is all too believable.  But some elements struck me as artificial, and I thought I had a handle on what was really going on about two-thirds through the mystery.  Alas, I was wrong, although I think that my imagined scenario would have worked out better than what finally is presented here.

For fans of mysteries that are ultra-tricky and depend on audiences accepting things that aren’t true, this movie will impress.  But I’m not a fan of this approach.  In my last review I noted the “unreliable narrator” format that fools viewers into believing one thing while something else is actually happening.  I want real stories, not these fake scenarios in which nothing is real, or nothing can be trusted.  Movies are worthy of being taken seriously and these fake narrative stories — some of which are admittedly pretty good, The Sixth Sense being a great one — just drive me nuts.  It’s like watching a magic show, trying to outthink the magician.  I just want to be told an intriguing story and accept things for what they are.  More of these movies would probably stop me from watching; I’m not a fan.  ☆ ☆.  7 August 2025.