Gazer: 'paranoid noir chiller' is a gripping watch
Ryan J. Sloan's debut film is haunted with 'skin-crawling unease'

A "genuine skin-crawling unease" haunts every moment of this elegant, "paranoid noir chiller", which was shot on 16mm on the "mean streets of Jersey City", said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian. Ariella Mastroianni (who also co-wrote the script) stars as Frankie, a woman living on the edge of poverty who suffers from the neurodegenerative disorders ataxia and dyschronometria; these leave her both disoriented and unable to accurately judge the passing of time – an affliction she tries to manage (in a nod to Christopher Nolan's "Memento") by recording memos to herself on 30-minute cassette tapes and gazing in through strangers' windows.
She is struggling for money when, at a group therapy session, she meets a mysterious woman, whom she remembers seeing through a window. The woman confides that she is being abused by her bullying cop brother, and offers Frankie $3,000 to break into the flat they share, and retrieve her car keys.
Naturally, the offer "proves too good to be true", said Larushka Ivan-Zadeh in The Times: there is a body in the car's boot, and Frankie is "sucked into a murky mare's nest of paranoia, crime and conspiracy", her ability to cope compromised by her "crumbling mind". In the first part of the film, Mastroianni and director Ryan J. Sloan build "a palpable air of dank menace", said Manohla Dargis in The New York Times; but the plot becomes murky before going fully off the rails. Sloan has seen a lot of films and cribs freely from the likes of Coppola's "The Conversation". This works well at times; in the end, however, "an amusing low-fi thriller" gets lost in the "thickets of cinematic allusion".
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Jaguar Land Rover’s cyber bailout
Talking Point Should the government do more to protect business from the ‘cyber shockwave’?
-
Russia: already at war with Europe?
Talking Point As Kremlin begins ‘cranking up attacks’ on Ukraine’s European allies, questions about future action remain unanswered
-
Sudoku hard: October 5, 2025
The Week's daily hard sudoku puzzle
-
Mustardy beans and hazelnuts recipe
The Week Recommends Nod to French classic offers zingy, fresh taste
-
Susie Dent picks her favourite books
The Week Recommends The lexicographer and etymologist shares works by Jane Goodall, Noel Streatfeild and Madeleine Pelling
-
6 incredible homes under $1 million
Feature Featuring a home in the National Historic Landmark District of Virginia and a renovated mid-century modern house in Washington
-
The Harder They Come: ‘triumphant’ adaptation of cinema classic
The Week Recommends ‘Uniformly excellent’ cast follow an aspiring musician facing the ‘corruption’ of Kingston, Jamaica
-
House of Guinness: ‘rip-roaring’ Dublin brewing dynasty period drama
The Week Recommends The Irish series mixes the family tangles of ‘Downton’ and ‘Succession’ for a ‘dark’ and ‘quaffable’ watch
-
Dead of Winter: a ‘kick-ass’ hostage thriller
The Week Recommends Emma Thompson plays against type in suspenseful Minnesota-set hair-raiser ‘ringing with gunshots’
-
A Booker shortlist for grown-ups?
Talking Point Dominated by middle-aged authors, this year’s list is a return to ‘good old-fashioned literary fiction’
-
Fractured France: an ‘informative and funny’ enquiry
The Week Recommends Andrew Hussey's work is a blend of ‘memoir, travelogue and personal confession’