Movie Review: One False Move

This is that great indie thriller you're looking for.

Dennis suggests One False Move (in Mystery/Thriller). You know how some days you wander the Videoport aisles and listlessly look over our truly dizzying selection and still, inexplicably, think to yourself, “I have seen every, single, solitary piece of filmed entertainment ever recorded since the Edison cylinder was invented”. And then you get all sad inside and mope for the rest of the day and then go out to a bar to drown your sorrows and let yourself get picked up by some questionable member of the opposite/same/indeterminate sex and then your spouse finds out and leaves you and your life is a hollow shell? Man, I hate when that happens. Well, Videoport is the one place where you can be sure that never happens because our shelves are just dotted with unexpected, overlooked gems of movies that will make you snap out of your funk and keep your relationship intact. Case in point- this mostly-forgotten little crime film from 1992, which blends the more traditional elements of the cop thriller with nuanced writing and performances and assured, lyrical direction. It was written by (and co-stars) a young-ish Billy Bob Thornton as was directed by the similarly-overlooked Carl Franklin (who also did the underrated Devil In a Blue Dress), and contains a fine, unexpectedly-contained performance by noted character spazz Bill Paxton as an Arkansas sheriff who has to deal with a trio of visiting criminals (Thornton, icy Michael Beach, and the luminously-lovely Cynda Williams) and a pair of vaguely-condescending LA detectives on their trail, along with some buried secrets of his own. It’s an engrossing, edgy, and refreshingly human thriller that seems inhabited by actual people for a change. The very definition of a sleeper, One False Move is the cure for your movie ennui.