Don't Tell a Soul

A funny mean streak runs through the promising coming-of-age thriller Don't Tell a Soul.

As for Wilson, he fits effortlessly into this equation as the proxy father upon whom Matt can inflict his one sense of revenge against his late dad, and in whom Joey finds something like parental approval.

With every pout, Whitehead seems to puff with pride, as if to say "Here I reveal yet another terrible aspect of the American Character."

I was never bored and underwhelmed, nor did I feel certain events were foreseeable. Alex McAulay‘s feature debut as a director largely functions as a nimble and fair thriller, but there’s some heart to the story, as well.

What could have gone down as a potential genre game-changer instead becomes merely an entertaining diversion, and nothing more. There are certainly worse things to be.

Bleak drama.

This well-crafted, queasy movie, neither a formulaic thriller or entirely credible as drama, nonetheless ultimately pulls off a kind of backroads grand guignol that is worth a look.

Holds one's interest over its brief eighty-three minute running-time, though it suffers from almost amusing issues of plausibility and one terribly overwrought performance.

I applaud McAulay's efforts, but Don't Tell a Soul is at its best when it's simply having fun as a silly B-flick. Shut your brain off, enjoy - and, like with any guilty pleasure, don't tell a soul you liked it.

Writer/director Alex McAulay's mean-spirited, mud-caked, scungy thriller, "Don't Tell a Soul," gets a boost from an uncharacteristically scary Rainn Wilson.