film

We're probably all pretty used to Spain deciding that English-language films must be given hilariously literal and descriptive alternative Spanish titles. What we're less used to is the alternative Spanish title being in English: Dead Man's Wire is, for some reason, to be known as Prime Crime: A True Story here. In any event, Gus van Sant's latest revisits one of the strangest true crime episodes in American history – a 1977 hostage standoff in Indianapolis involving a former real estate developer and a shotgun wired to his own neck.

The film leans into the absurdity and tension of a media circus before 24-hour news, in which confusion, ego and desperation collide in real time. Rather than a straight thriller, it unfolds with a dry, almost surreal tone, capturing the uneasy spectacle as much as the stakes. Bill Skarsgård leads with a jittery, unpredictable performance, while the surrounding cast bring the escalating chaos to life with deeply uneasy realism.