‘Encounter’ Review: Riz Ahmed Leads the Way in a Tightly Orchestrated, Genre-Defying Road Thriller

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In the creepy opening sequence of “Encounter,” a taut, genre-bending psychological thriller with nonstop drive, an asteroid crashes into Planet Earth before the title even appears. The blinding inc…

,” a taut, genre-bending psychological thriller with nonstop drive, an asteroid crashes into Planet Earth before the title even appears. The blinding incident causes a curious chain reaction: There are bloodthirsty beetles, crawling insects, a human infected by a microbe-carrying mosquito.

The greatest trick Pearce and his co-writer Joe Barton pull with “Encounter” is styling a shrewd shift in perspectives early on in the film, shot by DP Benjamin Kracun with acute attention to light and shadows, scored unnervingly by Jed Kurzel. At first glance, that change — which occurs when Malik calls his caring parole officer Hattie from the road — might deceptively look like a cheap twist designed to shock the audience with the reveal of Malik’s true nature and intentions.

Throughout their road trip, the Kahns get confronted by a needlessly suspicious police officer evidently pleased to daunt a brown father, a gun-toting madman and his angry, heavily-weaponized sons — a white trio whose armed incompetence Pearce can’t help but emphasize with restrained political purpose. As the scale of the chaos grows, the scribes also allow the young boys ample room to mature.

 

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