Dead Man’s Wire

There isn’t much that ties together the eighteen feature films that Gus Van Sant has directed. Most of them are small. The biggest budget he got was $25 million for the 1998 shot-for-shot Psycho remake that people widely loathe. Two of them — 1997’s Good Will Hunting and 2008’s Milk — were big time Oscar winners and Best Picture nominees. Apart from those two, most have not been commercially successful. And yet, awards or not, profitable or not, most of Van Sant’s work has garnered notice and admiration, in large part due to the body of work he has put together over the past forty years and the major talent he consistently attracts in the acting community.

Dead Man’s Wire fits into the Van Sant oeuvre in typically awkward fashion. It is an independent production, though one which has been slated for wide release as the first acquisition of Row K Entertainment. It premiered in September at the Venice International Film Festival, but out of competition, and though it’s received a limited engagement to qualify for awards, its biggest accolade to date has been a nomination for Best Period Film from AARP. There’s a good chance that nod stands as the film’s peak accolade, and yet that does not in any way mean that Van Sant’s latest work is a misfire that you should miss.

Wire tells the wild true story of Tony Kiritsis, an Indiana man who in February of 1977 takes the president of Meridian Mortgage Company hostage at gunpoint with a shotgun hanging from a wire tied around his neck and ready to fire at slight provocation. Kiritsis (Bill Skarsgård) is not happy with the way that Meridian has conducted business with him. The bachelor has dedicated years of his life to trying to develop land for commercialization, only to fall behind on the mortgage payments, paving the way for Meridian to sweep back in, reclaim the land, and profit wildly.

To Meridian, it’s business as usual. To Kiritsis, it’s not okay. The land is all he has going for him and he’s not about to just roll over and let the big bank stomp him. Like Travis Bickle and Howard Beale a year earlier, here is another man who would not take it anymore. Hence, the sawed-off Winchester he straps to the neck of Meridian’s nepo baby VP Richard Hall (Dacre Montgomery).

Kiritsis demands millions of dollars and a meaningful apology, both of which he feels he’s owed. It’s easy to empathize with anyone wrangling with mortgage company fat cats making their money off of others’ sweat and hardships, especially given the obscene nature of wealth inequality in the present day. I suspect that is part of the reason why Van Sant chose to make this movie now and in the way he does, in which Kiritsis is, at worst, an antihero, even when he’s grumbling semi-coherently and threatening the life of a young family man who remains about as genial as anyone in his situation might be.

Wire is the ninth of his eighteen features on which Van Sant does not take writing credit. That honor belongs solely to Austin Kolodney, a Los Angeles Zoo custodian who hopes this first feature screenplay will be his big break. Kolodney’s IMDb resume stretches back to 2013, but it is comprised of short films hardly anyone has seen and a Season 1 episode of something called “Haven: Origins.” Clearly, this movie represents a giant leap forward for Kolodney, whose self-researched screenplay hooked Van Sant and, with that, drew some big name talent.

How big? How about Al Pacino big? Sure, the actor may stand just 5’6″ and I’m not even sure we see him standing in either of his two brief scenes here, but no one can deny that he’s one of cinema’s greatest legends. It’s heartening to see him collaborating with another accomplished filmmaker for the first time, even at 85 years old and with limited screentime.

The film undoubtedly belongs to the youngest member of the royal Skarsgård clan and this time he gets to resemble an actual living human being while commanding the screen, in contrast to his delightfully twisted turns in Nosferatu and the IT movies. Closing credits footage reveals that the tall, gangly Skarsgård doesn’t look a thing like the real Kiritsis, but he brings the pain and intensity needed to fuel this whole thing.

Other supporting roles are filled by the always interesting Coleman Domingo, playing a popular radio DJ that Kiritsis enlists to get his story told, and a barely recognizable Cary Elwes, who chews gum and scenery like he never has before. I feel like Elwes watched Pacino’s Serpico repeatedly to prep for this performance. He certainly adds color, even if he feels kind of out of place in 1970s Indiana.

Wire is full of color and style, evoking Dog Day Afternoon but without genuinely trying to recreate or top it. Van Sant has the film walk the fine line between drama and dark comedy and somehow gets away with never fully committing to either side. Though tense on occasion (particularly if you recall how Dog Day Afternoon ended), it is also somehow breezy and sort of just fun. The film simultaneously functions as a throwback procedural thriller and a middle finger to the 1%. It’s not going to crack many, if any, top ten lists, but nor will it pop up on anyone’s worst of 2025 list. Everyone here is too good at what they do to fumble the bag, even when you start to question if the true story lends to such a film. Ultimately, it does, although I’m also intrigued to check out Dead Man’s Line, the 2018 documentary on the same subject.

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