We live here an adventure that seems more exciting and enjoyable through that lost pupil that is mysteriously lost. Despite all this, Eddie is suspected of being one of several crimes that took six years. Things may seem quite mysterious but Eddie digs and finds a girl's body near John Dawson's house, where everyone seems to be still searching for the mysterious truth.
Tightly helmed by Julian Jarrold (Kinky Boots) . . . (and) beautifully shot, with some sensational acting turns -- especially by Rebecca Hall as one of the victims' mothers.
Philadelphia City Paper
March 11, 2010
Each film is enriched by collective detail, but it would have been richer had they played off each other rather than extending the argument.
It is effective at setting the stage, introducing some of the characters, and capturing the attention of those who love gritty, uncompromising dramas about police corruption and the dark side of human nature.
The tenets of crime cinema are well taken care of in 1974, which sets a specifically chest-tightening tone of anxiety and futility that makes the next two pictures (1980 and 1983) impossible to miss.
This is a noir, the kind where the good-for-nothing gumshoe (here, an investigative reporter) has a habit of getting his face bashed in, usually on account of a girl.
Cigarettes, leather jackets, bell-bottoms, and dollops of pop music establish the socially agreed upon distractions of the particular bygone time: just a few ways of avoiding ugly truths. [Blu-ray]
With its muted colors but unmuted violence, it's similar texturally to David Fincher's superb Zodiac, about another 70s serial killer. It's also just as disturbing.
The Red Riding films all come across as great, gritty tales of police corruption and human failing, but it's the first film that has the most impact, mainly because the young reporter Dunford is such a mix of romantic notions.