DIRECTOR: Babak Anvari
CAST: George MacKay, Hugh Bonneville, Kelly Macdonald, Percelle Ascott, Varada Sethu, Antonio Aakeel
RUNNING TIME: 110 mins
CERTIFICATE: 15
BASICALLY…: A graffiti artist (MacKay) uncovers a disturbing secret about a respected judge (Bonneville)…
NOW FOR THE REVIEW…
After scaring audiences silly with his Persian-language debut Under the Shadow, and then confusing them senseless with his follow-up Wounds, filmmaker Babak Anvari is back with a film that is both silly and senseless – but heaps of fun to watch in the moment.
I Came By, Anvari’s third feature which he also co-wrote with Namsi Khan, is the latest in a long line of delightfully trashy Netflix thrillers that knows exactly what the audience wants to see and delivers it with the entertainment dials turned up to eleven. It is a more engaging example than a lot of other Netflix thrillers, though, since Anvari is not only a more seasoned filmmaker who can actually make his films look somewhat theatrical instead of looking like a glossified TV movie of the week, but he also finds intriguing new ways to shake up the formula and keeps things relatively suspenseful – even when, again, you know that you’re watching something that’s undeniably trashy (in fact, this would honestly make a decent double-feature with Orphan: First Kill; both movies are highly entertaining while still being mostly aware of their trashy tones).
The film starts off with young graffiti artist Toby (George Mackay) and his partner-in-crime Jay (Percelle Ascott) finishing up on the latest of their headline-attracting attacks on the wealthy elite: the pair break into the cushy homes of affluent civilians, and spray-paint the words “I Came By” onto their walls (that’ll teach ‘em, I guess). The pair next set their eyes on the home of Sir Hector Blake (Hugh Bonneville), a respected former judge known in the public eye as a progressive champion against inequality, but Toby simply sees him as yet another rich white guy who’s all talk and no action. When Jay bows out of their side-hustle due to new responsibilities as a father, Toby – permanently stuck in arrested development, still living at home with his mother Lizzie (Kelly Macdonald) – flies solo on the Blake job – but upon breaking in, he discovers a horrifying secret hidden in Blake’s basement, which Blake himself will do anything to keep under wraps.
It’s not beneficial to go any further than that, because I Came By is the kind of film that should be best viewed knowing as little as possible going in. This is a movie that enjoys pulling the rug on its viewer on several occasions, putting you on a path that you think is going to make up the rest of the film – and thereby make it no different than something like The Collector or Don’t Breathe – but then wistfully doing away with those elements in shocking, and certainly surprising, fashion. It makes things feel a bit more unpredictable with what’s going to happen to these characters, and leaves you wondering until the very end if it’s going to be the sort of film where the villain completely gets away with it, Funny Games-style. Of course, there are points where it seems that Anvari is colouring too neatly within the lines, to a point where it telegraphs certain twists coming in from miles away (not helped by some highly unnecessary jump-scares), but he is a smart enough filmmaker to not follow the guidelines too carefully, adding his own spin to the story while also making it a reasonably satisfying watch to those more familiar with the formula being played around with here.
It’s a well-made movie, supported by Anvari’s playful filmmaking and a collection of fun performances – Hugh Bonneville in particular is having a blast in a rare villain role for the Downton Abbey star – but don’t think for a minute that I Came By is going to start winning awards any time soon. It knows all too well what kind of movie it is, that being a mindless trashy thriller that relies on convenience after convenience, not to mention characters doing the dumbest things possible in their situation, to further the plot rather than anything that makes logical sense. You’ll be asking yourself quite frequently how exactly certain characters were able to get away with such and such a thing, or why particular others don’t do their job properly just so that the plot can continue. Either way, things really don’t add up all that often, and if you’re already not into trashy cinema because of those types of plot holes, then this will not sway you (as for everyone else who loves how silly these types of movies can get, there’s plenty of gleeful stupidity to go around).
Beyond the trashier conventions, this movie also suffers from more than a few pacing problems, with some scenes clearly in need of extra trimming to get it down to a more comfortable length, because at 110 minutes it does feel longer than it needs to be. Furthermore, I Came By seems to have a strange relationship with the passage of time; days, weeks, and even months will suddenly just fly by, without any sort of clarification as to how far ahead we’ve jumped, leaving it to feel that everything we see (including the development and birth of an infant child) is happening within moments of each other. It gets to a point where it becomes seriously distracting, because the way it just leaps from one thing to the next, without even so much as a simple transition, is impossible to ignore even with a psychotic Hugh Bonneville stealing every single scene he’s in.
Flaws aside, and there are plenty, I Came By is the good kind of trashy cinema: sure, it’s over-the-top, ridiculous and doesn’t make the slightest bit of sense, but on the more positive side, it’s over-the-top, ridiculous and doesn’t make the slightest bit of sense – in other words, just what anyone wants out of mindless entertainment like this.
SO, TO SUM UP…
I Came By is a delightfully trashy thriller that revels in silly and borderline nonsensical plotting and pacing, but it is a well-made and well-acted piece of trash that carries it all the way through its massively ridiculous plot.
