Event Info
Free Fire: Ben Wheatley
Bold, breathless and wickedly fun, Free Fire is an electrifying comedy-thriller ...
9:45pm
Event Description
Bold, breathless and wickedly fun, Free Fire is an electrifying comedy-thriller about an arms deal that goes spectacularly and explosively wrong. Acclaimed filmmaker Ben Wheatley (Kill List, High Rise) propels the audience head-on into quite possibly the most epic shootout ever seen on film as he crafts a spectacular parody – and biting critique – of the insanity of gun violence. Everyone’s got a gun, and absolutely no one is in control.
Set in a colourful yet gritty 1970s Boston, Free Fire opens with Justine (Brie Larson, Room), a mysterious American businesswoman, and her wise-cracking associate Ord (Armie Hammer) in a deserted warehouse, arranging a black-market weapons deal between IRA arms buyer Chris (Cillian Murphy) and shifty South African gun runner Vernon (Sharlto Copley). What starts as a polite if uneasy exchange soon goes south when tensions escalate and shots are fired, quickly leading to a full-on Battle Royale where it’s every man (and woman) for themselves.
It’s the kind of crazy mayhem that demands a clear vision and firm hand on the rudder and Free Fire has it all – smart editing, Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury’s jazz score, and Laurie Rose’s in-your-face cinematography. Wheatley’s disparate filmography runs from horror (Kill List), to black, black comedy (Sightseers) to psychedelia (A Field in England) and here he not only masters the crime caper/high concept thriller, he goes beyond to deliver a witty atmospheric stunner.