An Iranian action film? With explosions and cops trying to bring down drug lords, just like in their big-budget American counterparts? Iranian filmmakers are known for turning a 90-minute car ride into visual ecstasy. This should be a snap! We open on a foot chase — no pounding music needed to aid in quickening one’s pulse, just the smooth, forward momentum of a camera trained on the pursuit, steadier than a hand-held dialogue exchange in most indie dramas. How it ends is inducement enough to keep you strapped to your seat for the next 130 minutes. The action is at times preordained: turn over enough little rocks and you’ll find the supplier. And the scream theatre dialogue exchanges call to mind the subtlety on an episode of Kojack. But the storytelling is always lucid and the script is inventive enough to keep things interesting. Lesson learned: always hire grotesquely overweight drug mules. That way, security guards won’t spot any heroin balloons puffing out from their bellies. (2019) — Scott Marks
This movie is not currently in theaters.