Mark Reviews Movies: FEEDBACK

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Review by Mark Dujsik | January 16, 2020

Almost exclusively set in a radio studio, Feedback is a tightly constructed little thriller that suffers from one key problem: It doesn't have a hero. That's kind of the point, as a political talk show host's life is threatened and then picked apart over the course of a single night. By the end, we realize that his self-righteous talk is just bloviating to cover up his true nature.

Eddie Marsan plays that host, named Jarvis Dolan, a liberal professional talker, who recently was abducted by a right-wing gang that was unhappy with his political views. Shortly after starting his show on this particular night, Jarvis realizes that his producer Anthony (Alexis Rodney) and tech Claire (Ivana Baquero) in the broadcast booth are missing. They're being held hostage by a pair of men wearing masks and armed with a sledgehammer, a knife, and a shotgun.

Our and Jarvis' immediate thought is that this is a continuation of the previous, unseen incident, but the men (played by Richard Brake and Oliver Coopersmith) state that this has nothing to do with politics. They want Jarvis to interview his old co-host Andrew (Paul Anderson), who has returned to provide some political balance to the show. The hostage-takers insist that Jarvis get Andrew to confess to something that happened in a hotel room over a decade ago.

The movie was co-written and directed by Pedro C. Alonso, who, along with co-screenwriter Alberto Marini, get a lot of early tension by way of these characters (Jarvis' stubbornness to agree, and Andrew's obviously false outrage) and the dialogue (An abductors is in Jarvis' ear, yelling and threatening). Eventually, it's Jarvis' turn to be interrogated about what happened that night.

As one might have deduced by now, the hostage-takers, who also include a third person revealed later, have direct knowledge of those alleged crimes. That's where the absence of any kind of sympathetic figure here becomes an issue.

Learning that—and the extent to which—Jarvis is rotten to the core makes a pointed statement about the ways in which outward appearances and sentiments can hide something sinister. Feedback, though, goes a few steps too far in presenting the other side—the perceived villains who are revealed to be victims. The filmmakers transform them into deranged, murderous monsters, simply to maintain a sense of suspense and terror.

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