Sharper (2023)

An Apple TV+ release, Benjamin Caron’s new film has garnered some pretty decent reviews from critics. Described as a teasing long-con, with a cast including Julianne Moore and John Lithgow (a completely wasted role in his barely ten minutes screen time) it begins with a young couple who begin courting and seem to have fallen in love (in the space of a few weeks, a time frame which we’re supposed to entirely accept) until one of them scams the other.

We then flit back to the girl's (Briana Middleton) past, seeing exactly how she got to the stage of the beginning of the film. This continues from character to character, and it seems that we’re supposed to be shocked that all the characters are interlinked, and worse, we’re meant to sympathise and feel emotionally invested in the lot of them.

The film deals with a number of people who have a lot of money, and we can see a mile off which characters will come off best at the end, and spend the film hoping that the film goes a different way. When, at the end of two hours it does exactly what you think it’s going to do and portrays it as a last act twist, it makes any interest you may have had at scant points throughout the film disappear immediately, and leaves you even more unimpressed than you initially thought. 3.2/10