Review - Dangerous Lies

What with cinemas shutting, the only solace for new releases sadly falls to Netflix, meaning we're here, reviewing the new trash thriller Dangerous Lies. This is our life now, but you know what, at least they had the decency to make this hilariously bad. It's the story of a young (for some reason, married) couple. The woman works for an old man as a carer, an old man who lives alone in a big house. Suddenly, one day, this man dies and leaves the house to her and her husband. Suspense ensues I guess? I dunno, the plot structure for this film is bonkers. It opens on a scene in a diner that takes place four months before the rest of the film, a scene whose relevance continues to be implied despite the fact it literally never pays off. It also starts to play the card of "maybe our lead character is actually guilty", except that either it's true and the film has actively been lying to us and dicking us around to get a twist in, or we've just given time over to a completely pointless subplot. The answer... May not surprise you. All of this ridiculousness builds to a bonkers final fifteen minutes that is well worth the wait. It makes exactly zero sense but it's an absolute hoot. By final fifteen minutes, I'm of course not referring to yet another "four months later" that comes in as a pointless epilogue, in case you were worried that this film wouldn't try to end on one final, crazy, unpredictable twist.

I could never shake the feeling that this "husband and wife" were being played by a bunch of 16 year olds in their GCSE Drama final exam

One of the principle joys of bad movies is bad acting and it delights me to say that Dangerous Lies is no exception. Clearly, the film has been made as a potential star vehicle from Camila Mendes from Riverdale (more on that connection later) and... I guess it technically works? It shows of all the things that people like about her from the show, which is her charm, her good looks and definitely not her acting. I never believed a single word she said but I was having a great time. Worse is the actor who plays her husband. Perhaps it's because they both look so young but I could never shake the feeling that this "husband and wife" were being played by a bunch of 16 year olds in their GCSE Drama final exam (which includes the implied poor quality of acting). The rest of the cast suck too, although partially, the script is to blame for that. These group of guys and gals are tasked with delivering emotional shifts that are damn near instant. If your character is written as going from a really nice guy to suddenly an asshole in exactly one scene, very few performers could save that role. In the end, there's only one redeemable performance and that is the briefest, Elliott Gould. I recently watched The Long Goodbye for a film course, a film where he is at his prime and devouring the screen and while of course he isn't as good in this, he's so watchable. It's only a shame that he is a character written into the script to die, as it means the joy he brings is fleeting.

Dangerous Lies is the rare example of really impressively bad cinematography

We're gonna take a quick detour to film school here. Sometimes, I praise a film for its cinematography, which usually means the film looks great but also, cinematography is a really great way of communicating information to the audience. For a really simple example, let's take Little Women. In order to make it clear when the narrative has shifted from the past to the present, the colour of the film shifts, from a warm orange to a colder blue. It's simple but it's effective and it looks great too. Dangerous Lies is the rare example of really impressively bad cinematography, where it feels like the only purpose of the cinematography is to look interesting, something it still fails at. Sometimes, it's a scene shot from a  strange, unexplained camera angle. Often, it's more unnecessary drone shots than your average true crime documentary. Most anger inducing though is the persistent use of shallow focus. Again, let me explain in words people who aren't obsessive film losers can understand. In a given shot, the camera focus usually seems to be exclusively on the objects in the foreground, meaning that anything in the background becomes blurry. That works well in telling an audience what they should focus on. However, the focus is so intense, it starts to feel like the whole film has been shot on portrait mode on someone's phone, to the point where it looks like no character was actually on set and was instead shot on green screen. I'm sure most people will be entirely unfazed by this but I spotted it in the first five minutes and was so annoyed by it that I could never focus on anything else for the rest of the film.

How about we finish up with some good old fashioned cynicism? I have a theory (a theory I can't imagine many people disagreeing with) that this film only exists to cash in on the success of Riverdale. For those not in the know, Riverdale is a TV show adaptation of the Archie comics from the fifties, but made sexy and dangerous for the teens. It's not very good but as someone who enjoys trash and Twin Peaks (from which the show rips off character types, vibe and plot lines often), it's bad in a very watchable way. Despite being made by The CW, it's shown around most of the world on Netflix, the very same company that made Dangerous Lies. Now you're starting to get this, aren't you? Mendes is the only one of the main quartet who hasn't had a big hit outside the show (although I'd argue that having starred in Hustlers, Lili Reinhart is the only one who has actually given a great performance in a great movie) and so this is Mendes' attempt to branch out. However, with its young sexy people, trash tale of mystery and lazy cinematography, it feels an awful lot like a Riverdale spin-off. There's even a point where a sound effect is used between scenes that sounds just like the sound effect Riverdale uses to end a scene before an ad break. It's insane how much of a rip-off this feels like, although understandable. Now, the fact that this film is only being made because Riverdale is popular isn't necessarily a sign it has to be bad. I recently rewatched 21 and 22 Jump Streets, two films ordered into production because Sony wanted to reboot a popular TV show, and those films take their restrictions and flourish under the circumstances, creating two of the funniest films of the decade. It is fair to say, Dangerous Lies is not as creative as the Jump Street films, although unintentionally, it's almost as funny.

Rejoice one and all, because Dangerous Lies is hot trash.

Rejoice one and all, because Dangerous Lies is hot trash. I watched it alone but if you gathered some friends around Netflix Party (a poor substitute for the communal experience, but it'll do for now) and get some drinks in, there's joy to be had. However, it definitely isn's a good film. I can see some people putting it on and not finding it all that offensive but it is impressively poorly made, so I have to give it a