“Detained” will be an unsatisfactory film for you if the absence of any trace of coherent human behaviour is a problem for you. but on the other hand, it is filled with simple pleasures that make it undeniably captivating escapism. It is so heightened by “The Usual Suspects,” it even has a weird villain who seems to be sitting right here among us.
One only gets to know that another twist in the tale is about to surprise him as he moves into the end of the previous one. Yea, it’s a dumb movie about dumb people but there’s something about how all these morons are thrown at each other in an impossible situation; and none survive.
Abbie Cornish gives one of my most underrated performances in Jane Campion’s “Bright Star” and stars as Rebecca Kamen, who wakes up in police custody… or not. From the beginning scenes of “Detained,” I could tell that something was wrong though I couldn’t quite figure out if this was just a crappy movie or an obvious set up. This might be too spoilery, but it happens too early and it is telegraphed too thoroughly; so, I think we can say that Rebecca isn’t held in your typical precinct. Something much darker is going on.
Once she comes round again, she finds out that she was involved in hitting-and running down a bicycle rider – some of the things which don’t seem rational include interrogating her like this when she was blackout drunk as far as car crashes were concerned. However, this would be one of many times where you’ll have to swallow your disbelief while watching this flick. It feels like there’d be other ways to check if this indeed happened or not.
But before Rebecca asks such questions she’s been thrown into a holding cell with another woman (Josephine Lindegaard) and an older junkie (Silas Weir Mitchell). The latter results in a gunshot that then causes Rebecca to try and bribe her way out of the situation with money. But just before she can successfully bribe her supposed IO, the curtains fall and it is obvious that they are all part of an absurd con game run by Avery (Laz Alonso of “The Boys”) who could be working for or actually be a legendary villain named Keyser Soze—or sorry, Jovan. You know what I mean.
There may be a trace of theatricality in my background, but I cannot resist a thriller that happens mostly in one location, as it introduces characters and lets them clash into each other until they explode. A cast that knows what to do with this concept is the ingredient for successful variations. The director and co-writer Felipe Mucci has done this excellently.
Alonso is having fun here in ways that I occasionally wish his Prime Video hit would allow much more often, nevertheless what’s interesting are the types of people who make up the rest of the “Ridiculous Suspects,” such as Moon Bloodgood playing a tough-talking detective and Justin H. Min (“After Yang”) appearing as Rebecca’s supposed lawyer. Many low-budget films like “Detained” tend to end up with mediocre casts, but surprisingly this one has sharp ensemble playing around with its silly plot while hoping you will too.
At nearly the conclusion of all hell breaking loose, there is someone saying .Not entirely clear on motive either’, sounded out. I laughed aloud. This is almost meaningless if any person thinks about it too much by looking at the many twists and turns in “Detained”, and there’s definitely a tighter more stylized version of this movie that could have smoothed out some rough edges into something grittier; truer than life itself. However, there’s something oddly refreshing about a B-movie being unapologetically itself. It may not be “The Usual Suspects,” but “The Usual Idiots” is pretty fun too.
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