Sender – Movie Review (3/5)

SENDER is a thriller starring Britt Lower (Severance) and the most awesome supporting cast. Seriously, it’s absolutely breathtaking. For me, anyway. Also, the paranoid yet all-too-relatable plot intrigued me from beginning to end. Read our Sender movie review here!

SENDER is a truly paranoid thriller that probably won’t be for everyone. However, if you watch it with an open mind, there is a lot of brutal substance in both the main and subtext of this movie. Also, there is a cast that is so full of genre icons that I was almost overwhelmed.

And yet, this is very much Britt Lower’s movie, as she is often on the screen all by her lonesome. She is as amazing as in Severance, and this movie deals with an equally strange world. In a very different way, but still something most people should be able to relate to in strange ways.

Continue reading our Sender movie review below.

It’s not Amazon; it’s Smirk

In Sender, the title character is someone Julia (Britt Lower) believes is tormenting her. She is a recovering alcoholic who begins receiving a series of packages. They all seem to be containing personal items that she could have ordered. However, Julia knows that she hasn’t ordered these things.

Not just because she got fired recently, and doesn’t have money to spend like this, but also because she doesn’t necessarily need the stuff she’s receiving. And she is receiving a lot of packages. In fact, soon, her new suburban rental is full of boxes. So is her front lawn, for that matter.

Now, while the packages may bear an uncanny resemblance to the Amazon packages you see everywhere, this isn’t Amazon; It’s Smirk. They have virtually the same iconic logo with the “smiling arrow”, and the overall system seems the same, but obviously it isn’t Amazon.

Anyway, the online retailer, Smirk, denies all responsibility, which leads Julia’s search for the anonymous sender down a dangerous and downright crazy rabbit hole. Clearly, someone messed with the wrong lady; She has time and needs a project to keep her busy. This will do just fine!

Check out this ensemble cast

Sure, Britt Lower plays the lead role as Julia, but she has the most amazing supporting cast around her. Joining her in most scenes are Anna Baryshnikov (Love Lies Bleeding), who plays her sister, and David Dastmalchian (Dexter: Resurrection), who plays a Smirk delivery driver.

Also in key roles, you will get to enjoy the iconic scream queen and all-around amazing human being, Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween, Scarpetta). She isn’t on-screen much, but she definitely makes an impact!

Getting much more screentime and playing a bigger role in Julia’s life is Whitney, who is portrayed by Rhea Seehorn (Pluribus, Better Call Saul). Whitney may not want to be in Julia’s life, but that does not stop Julia from constantly calling Whitney. It’s a whole thing.

Finally, we also have Utkarsh Ambudkar (Ghosts, Free Guy) in a key role as the former colleague of Julia. And that’s all I’ll say about that.

Watch Sender when you can

This new and very tense psychological thriller comes from writer-director Russell Goldman (producer on The Lost Bus). This is based on his own short film titled Return to Sender, which starred Allison Tolman (Krampus) as the main character.

Among the producers, we find Jamie Lee Curtis, Molly Hallam, and Jake Katofsky. Also, as executive producers, there are the star of the movie, Britt Lower, and the writer-director, Russell Goldman, alongside Akshay Shah and Thomas Grabinski

With a runtime of just 94 minutes, this manages to stay on the rails, even when it looks like things are getting out of control. Clearly, Russell Goldman had a strong grip on his story and knew what it needed. Though I’m sure editor Marco Rosas (who also edited the short film) helped secure it all came together.

Britt Lower is someone I hope to see in lots more genre productions. She is so fierce at delivering these character portrayals that pull you in, and just do not let go. In Sender, she delivers a real tour de force of a character portrayal, which – along with the fascinating plot – makes for a damn fine genre film!

SENDER premiered at SXSW. We’re currently awaiting information on its release. We’ll update with information on this as soon as we have it.

Details

Director: Russell Goldman
Writer: Russell Goldman
Cast: Britt Lower, Rhea Seehorn, Jamie Lee Curtis, Anna Baryshnikov, David Dastmalchian, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Mike Mitchell