We’re in that slow time of year when movie studios look ahead to the summer’s biggest projects, but fret not, because there’s always something worth seeing. This month, we’re graced by a new film from director Ben Wheatley, the innovative and maniacal mind behind Kill List, Sightseers, and last year’s heady, memorable High-Rise.
The director’s latest, Free Fire, has been making the festival rounds since last fall’s Toronto International Film Festival, where our own writer Sarah Kurchak called it “the best damned trifle of a quippy, feature-length shootout you’ll ever see.” Starring Brie Larson, Armie Hammer, and Sharlto Copley, Free Fire promises something uniquely wild from a singular director.
For those in the Chicagoland area, we have your first chance to see the film for free and a few days before its release. On Monday, April 17th at 7:00 p.m., the Music Box Theatre will host an exclusive screening of the film and a post-film Q&A with Mr. Wheatley himself. The good news is that all you have to do is RSVP using this link.
If you’re on the fence, check out the film’s trailer above and read through the synopsis below. And if you simply can’t make the Monday screening, that’s fine, too: Free Fire hits theaters nationwide on April 21st.
Bold, breathless and wickedly fun, Free Fire is an electrifying comedy-thriller about an arms deal that goes spectacularly and explosively wrong. Acclaimed filmmaker Ben Wheatley (Kill List, High-Rise) propels the audience head-on into quite possibly the most epic shootout ever seen on film as he crafts a spectacular parody –– and biting critique –– of the insanity of gun violence. Everyone’s got a gun, and absolutely no one is in control.
Set in a colorful yet gritty 1970s Boston, Free Fire opens with Justine (Oscar® winner Brie Larson), a mysterious American businesswoman, and her wise-cracking associate Ord (Armie Hammer) arranging a black-market weapons deal in a deserted warehouse between IRA arms buyer Chris (Cillian Murphy) and shifty South African gun runner Vernon (Sharlto Copley). What starts as a polite if uneasy exchange soon goes south when tensions escalate and shots are fired, quickly leading to a full-on Battle Royale where it’s every man (and woman) for themselves.