Director: Tarik Saleh
Notable Cast: Chris Pine, Ben Foster, Gillian Jacobs,
Kiefer Sutherland, Eddie Marsan, Florian Munteanu
As the industry continues to shift in recent years, it’s
hard not to lament the loss of certain mid-tier genres in the wake of a
spectacle-driven box office. The death of the mid-budget adult-targeted film is
well recognized throughout film criticism and industry analysis where many
great writers have spoken about it at length so iterating the eulogy here is
not the best use of my word usage. With the rise of streaming, however, there
seems to be a grasp towards grabbing those genres and reclaiming them for a
modern era.
The Contractor, exemplifies this.
Although this latest old-school espionage thriller is
receiving a small theatrical run this week, its sale to both Showtime and
Paramount+ at the same time is indicative of this move. The Contractor
is not the spectacle-driven spy flick that Mission: Impossible or James
Bond fans might expect, but it is a solid sleeper hit that manages a balance
between modern political themes and old-school espionage tension and thrills.
It’s not wholly the most thrilling watch, thanks to a very drama-heavy first
half, but its dedication to creating realistic characters and then throwing
them into the military action shouldn’t be written off as boring either. The
Contractor is simply more throw-back tone than anything. It’s utterly
refreshing at times.