DROP
(director: Christopher Landon; screenwriters: Jillian Jacobs, Chris Roach; cinematographer: Marc Spicer; editor: Ben Baudhuin; music: Bear McCreary; cast: Meghann Fahy (Violet), Brandon Sklenar (Henry), Violett Beane (Jen), Jacob Robinson (Toby), Ed Weeks (Phil, piano player), Gabrielle Ryan (Bartender), Sarah McCormack (Hostess), Reed Diamond (Richard, on a blind date), Jeffery Self (Waiter); Runtime: 100; MPAA Rating: PG-13; producers: Jason Blum, Michael Bay, Brad Fuller, Cameron Fuller; Universal Pictures; 2025)
“It just might become a cult film date night classic.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A fast-paced Hitchcockian hostage thriller brilliantly helmed by Christopher Landon (“We Have a Ghost”/”Freaky”). The effective screenplay is co-written by Jillian Jacobs and Chris Roach. The endearing movie just might become a cult film date night classic. It’s an original work that’s shot almost entirely in a single location.
Violet (Meghann Fahy, starring in TV’s The White Lotus) is a widowed mother, escaping bloodied and bruised in the opening scene from her late husband who pulled a gun on her.
She works as a therapist for survivors of domestic violence.
Years later the traumatized Violet is coaxed into going on her first date since that terrible incident. She goes on a Tinder site and arranges an apps date with the handsome, thoughtful, nice guy Henry (Brandon Sklenar), a 32-year-old press photographer from Chicago (who works for the mayor). During dinner at a high-end Chicago restaurant, on the top floor of a downtown skyscraper, she receives at her table mysterious anonymous threatening messages on her cell phone telling her that her babysitting sister (Violett Beane) and her 5-year-old son (Jacob Robinson) are being held hostage in the apartment and they will be killed unless she poisons her date with a vial of fentanyl.
How Violet goes into action to try to save the day becomes the beauty of this well-executed and well-acted film that successfully blends drama, suspense, romance and a ridiculous third act of action sequences together. It results in one of the more enjoyable films of the year, a real crowd-pleaser. I found I couldn’t help myself rooting for everything to go well for the sympathetic vic and her date.
It played at the SXSW Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 3/19/2025 GRADE: A-
dennisschwartzreviews.com