The title of director Gus Van Sant’s new film Dead Man’s Wire refers to an apparatus attached to a shotgun that is looped around a person’s neck. If the person moves or jerks out of place, it trips the wire, and the gun goes off. It’s a fitting image — and analogy — for the film as a whole, which is thrillingly controlled even as its narrative reaches and stop-and-go cadence both threaten to implode the story.

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