Slowly but steadily, a pair of case-hardened homicide detectives (Raúl Arévalo and Javier Gutiérrez) discover they have more in common with each other (and the serial killer they tenaciously pursue) than initially thought in this anything-but-routine cop picture. Using Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood as a touchstone, Spanish director and co-writer Alberto Rodríguez (After, Unit 7) puts a fresh (if seamy) spin on a genre that’s long been taken for granted. Sagging storytelling devices such as bird’s-eye-view cutaways and even the dreaded zoom are given powerful, plot-advancing facelifts while under Rodríguez’s fastidious care. Set in the 1980s, this unsettling, politically fraught thriller leaves no topographical cavity unprodded as our ideologically opposed antiheroes use any and all means to blow the lid off the small-town pressure cooker. A rarity today in its discerning use of widescreen framing and distanced viewpoint, this one won’t have the same impact via a small screen introduction. (2015) — Scott Marks
This movie is not currently in theaters.