Film Review – Spiderhead

Director Joseph Kosinski has exclusively made large-scale movies during his career. He’s taken on the Grid (“Tron: Legacy”), dealt with the future (“Oblivion”), celebrated firefighting heroism (“Only The Brave”), and recently restored the world’s need for speed (“Top Gun: Maverick”). He has an eye for spectacle, but his latest, “Spiderhead,” doesn’t carry the potential for explosive visuals. It’s a chiller and character study that largely takes place inside a single building, with writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese adapting a short story about the pressures of manipulation and submission inside a prison engaging in chemical modifications of human behaviors. The feature is mostly about disturbing mind games and quieter moments of connection, and Kosinski handles it exceptionally well, carefully constructing a suspenseful and fascinating examination of control, putting his faith into casting to summon a heavy level of unease. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com