Review: In the Shadow of the Moon

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

PLOT: A Philadelphia cop (Boyd Holbrook) in 1987 kills a suspected serial killer (Cleopatra Coleman) in the line of duty, only for her to somehow show up again, alive, in 1996 and then again in 2005 to continue her string of murders – never aging a day in the process. Soon, he becomes obsessed with cracking this decades-spanning case, even if the results will take him to the brink of madness and challenge his concept of space and time.

REVIEW: Critics out of Fantastic Fest haven’t been especially kind to Jim Mickle’s IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON. A big detour into sci-fi following his retro COLD IN JULY (and it’s follow-up “Hap & Leonard” TV series – which was canceled too soon), this is like a genre version of “True Detective”, in that it covers multiple decades in the career of a dogged detective, in this case, Boyd Holbrook’s Thomas Lockhart, and the disastrous effect an obsession can wreak on someone’s personal life.

Yet, and this is one of the things I liked about IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON, Mickle’s film isn’t the least bit self-important. It’s just a fun two-hour sci-fi romp, the kind of thing to enjoy and then forget about. It’s a time-travel thriller that isn’t afraid to get silly, and no one can tell me this isn’t intentional, such as a scene where Holbrook’s character fights an adversary in a van mid-flip as obviously fake pig carcasses fly around him.

The mystery at the film’s heart is quite intriguing, with the victims of Coleman’s spree all dying in the same gruesome way, with them being injected with an isotope that liquefies their insides. One look at the slick, battle-ready Coleman clues you in that she’s not your average killer, especially with the care she takes with not hurting Holbrooke during their many scraps, trying to dissuade him from chasing her without actually roughing him up too badly. It all plays into the film’s big twist, which is certainly a huge swing from Mickle and writers Gregory Weidman & Geoff Tock, but it works relatively well.

Mickle directs with a lot of style and IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON has some eccentric touches that differentiate it from the norm, including a great score by Jeff Grace and good character work by Michael C. Hall (as Holbrooke’s nice guy brother-in-law/boss) and the always great Bokeem Woodbine, who’s underused as his partner (when will Woodbine get to play a lead?). Speaking of “Fargo” vets, Rachel Keller also has a tiny role as Holbrook’s pregnant wife in 1987, although she’s done away within a predictably quick manner.

It’s anchored by Boyd Holbrook, who’s got one of his better roles here in the lead. He’s got a lot more to chew on here than he did in THE PREDATOR, and he goes all-in as the obsessed cop. Notably, he also gives the character a lot of humanity, both in the way he deals with his family and the way he pursues Coleman, the presumed killer. Current events are also given a nod, with clues dropped throughout that this is going to all pay off in an off-kilter way, although for me this sure-to-be divisive twist is what makes the movie.

IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON really is a fun little sci-fi action-thriller with standout work by Holbrook and Coleman, and certainly readers of this site will likely enjoy it if they can turn their brains off to a certain extent, as like anything else that deals with time travel, the “rules” fall apart the more you ruminate on them. I had fun with this Netflix original movie, although certainly, it might be a little too “out there” for some.

In the Shadow of the Moon

GOOD

7

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