X
- 2013
- R
- Sundance Selects
- 1 h 33 m
- 2013
- R
- Sundance Selects
- 1 h 33 m
Summary An exploration of the relationship between John Allen Muhammad and 17-year-old Lee Boyd Malvo, the perpetrators of the 2002 Beltway sniper attacks.
Directed By: Alexandre Moors
Written By: R.F.I. Porto, Alexandre Moors
- 2013
- R
- Sundance Selects
- 1 h 33 m
- 2013
- R
- Sundance Selects
- 1 h 33 m
Blue Caprice
76
7.0
Where to Watch
Summary An exploration of the relationship between John Allen Muhammad and 17-year-old Lee Boyd Malvo, the perpetrators of the 2002 Beltway sniper attacks.
Directed By: Alexandre Moors
Written By: R.F.I. Porto, Alexandre Moors
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 25 Critic Reviews
76
80% Positive
20 Reviews
20 Reviews
20% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 25 Critic Reviews
76
80% Positive
20 Reviews
20 Reviews
20% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
A riveting first feature of startling maturity and intelligence.
Blue Caprice takes a minimalist, documentary-style approach that proves harrowingly effective.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 31 User Ratings
7.0
74% Positive
23 Ratings
23 Ratings
19% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
6% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 31 User Ratings
7.0
74% Positive
23 Ratings
23 Ratings
19% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
6% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
In my opinion Blue Caprice is by far on of the best films of this year, the story is really interesting, the development is great, the script is awesome, the performances are amazing. Excellent movie!
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Moors isolates a well-known drama with the fleeting nonfiction prologue and explores it from the inside out: It's not an attempted reenactment, but it does aim to get at certain truths.
It finds no clear answers, but that suits both the horrific event and this haunting, elusive film.
Blue Caprice otherwise proves a deft mood piece, one that probes its characters’ states of mind while remaining wholly unmoved by their grievances and hang-ups.
Director Alexandre Moors turns the project into something of an art film, requiring patience for repetitive editing and slow-burn scenes before the movie ultimately works itself under your skin.
For all its tasteful spareness and eerie, diaphanous mood, Blue Caprice feels, in the end, insubstantial. It’s a true-crime story that illustrates little about the crime in question and a character study whose characters, even when haunting, remain stubbornly opaque.
Ominous and tense throughout, "Blue Caprice" is a slow burn that builds to an unsettling boil, leaving you with a known outcome that's hard to digest. Director Alexandre Moors crafts a deceptively eerie depiction of Lee Malvo and John Allen Muhammad, and to its credit, the movie never pretends to have the answer. Moors stunning debut captures a horrific and confining tone of the tragic three weeks in October of 2002, when ten people were assassinated in a random series of attacks spanning across Washington DC, Maryland, and Virginia. "Blue Caprice" features two fantastic performances from Isaiah Washington and Tequan Richmond portraying the Beltway Snipers, John Allen Muhammad and Lee Malvo.
The movie begins on the Caribbean Island of Antigua, where life is not easy for a young Lee Malvo (Tequan Richmond), who is left to fend for himself after his mother abandons him once again. Muhammad spots Lee who appears as if he is drowning, rescues him, and becomes an adoptive father figure. Moors uses Lee Malvo as the audience’s entry point into Muhammad’s world, and John's back story comes only in pieces. However, it doesn't take much to surmise that Muhammad is trouble.
Flash forward a few months, and Muhammad has successfully smuggled Malvo into the United States, returning to Washington, where they stay with John's old friend Ray (Tim Blake Nelson), and his wife Jamie (Joey Lauren Adams). When Ray introduces Malvo to his gun collection to blow off steam, both men recognize the raw talent Lee possesses. Muhammad then begins to mold Malvo into a mindless assassin, eliminating any shred morality that may still lie within. This bond between the two progressively develops into a powerful, warped father-son style relationship. As the blind loyalty grows, we learn of John's grandiose scheme to create widespread mayhem and terror, starting with random killings following no discernible pattern.
Moors directorial approach is consistent throughout, using restraint and creating distance from the actual assassination scenes. For example, he presents the reactions of Malvo shooting his weapon, rather than what is happening at the other end of the gun. A victim is only seen briefly as their body falls to the ground, while the Caprice slowly glides away.
Moors creates a disturbing portrait of two ruthless men in free fall, and Isaiah Washington and Tequan Richmond both do outstanding work here. Washington has the extraordinarily difficult task of methodically revealing John's inner rage, resentments, and hatred that simmers just beneath his calm exterior. He’s both ferociously charismatic as well as deeply unsettling. Even more so impressive is the performance of Tequan Richmond, who must convey emotions, or lack thereof, in a character who rarely speaks of feelings at all. It's the sense of not knowing that makes his marvelous performance so chilling. The film owes a lot to its excellent cast, as well as the cinematography, and a sharp, minimalistic screenplay by R.F.I. Porto.
What makes the film so exceptional is that it doesn't attempt to recreate, and instead reconstructs the story from the inside out. This was a distorted, horrific mission carried out through manipulation and the escalation of evil. "Blue Caprice" generates an innermost sense of riding in the backseat with these two, only to leave you with introspection and muddled thoughts that linger long after the viewing.
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This is film that while put together well doesn't deal with the underlying reasons for this evil just to say that John Allen Muhammad felt wronged by society. Nevertheless a worth while effort. B
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This work takes the story of the Beltway killings and strips it of any sentimentality. Like its subjects, this movie is cold and calculated in its study of the perpetrators and their descent into psychopathy. These men were depicted as anti-social in the most diagnostic sense of the term - they were amoral, capable, logical killers, completely confident in their mission to expose mankind to its own demons through premeditated acts of violence. Why then, with such compelling subject matter, did this film feel so long and redundant? The lack of dynamics in the story telling would be my best guess.
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BLUE CAPRICE is a slow, meandering, quiet and brooding character study that does not translate into any insight or depth. This is just a lot of stuff. Then it ends.
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Production Company
SimonSays Entertainment,
Intrinsic Value Films,
Stephen Tedeschi Production,
Aiko Films,
Streetwise Pictures Entertainment,
Prolific,
High Def New York,
Coal House Production,
Electric Avenue Radio
Release Date Sep 13, 2013
Duration 1 h 33 m
Rating R
Tagline Some killers are born. Others are driven to it.
Awards
Black Reel Awards
• 2 Wins & 5 Nominations
Golden Trailer Awards
• 2 Nominations
Deauville Film Festival
• 2 Nominations
