by Joseph Perry and Mike Imboden
In our “The Good, the Bad, and the Verdict” film reviews, Joseph and Mike give their thoughts on a slice of cinema. For this installment, it’s Cold Wallet by Cutter Hodierne.
Synopsis
After losing everything in a cryptocurrency scam, a ragtag team of vigilantes — Redditors divorced Dad Billy (Raul Castillo) and hacker Eva (Melonie Diaz), along with Billy’s Zenned-out grappler friend Dom (Tony Cavalero) — attempt to kidnap kingpin Charles Hegel (Josh Brener), who screwed them over. But when the home invasion takes a turn for the worst, they become victims in a sadistic game.
The Good
Joseph: Home invasion thrillers usually lose me when they have protagonists who are common criminals. Thankfully, Hodierne — who cowrote the screenplay with John Hibey — avoids this with Cold Wallet by giving viewers flawed but likable characters who are trying to get their own money back, but are also considering playing modern-day Robin Hood. Castillo, Diaz, and Cavalero inhabit their characters impressively, while Brener makes for an excellent oily — heck, make that slimy — crypto bro villain. There’s plenty of humor here, balanced nicely with the more serious events at hand. The pacing is solid and the proceedings had me captivated throughout. Also, viewers don’t need to be crypto savvy to understand what’s happening — I’m not, and neither are Billy and Dom.
Mike: Technically a home invasion film, Cold Wallet doesn’t feature an innocent couple of homeowners who fall prey to any psychopaths but instead features a financial psychopath (aka a crypto bro) dealing with three average joes (well, one of them is a “jane”) looking for some literal payback for a bitcoin scam. Depending on your line in the sand to cross between right and wrong, you may find yourself siding less with the protagonists than the next person, but those feelings may dissipate once you come to understand their motivations a little better.
The script is smart and keeps the crypto references simple and devoid of too much lingo, giving explanations for things in a way that seems fluid and organic to the characters so nothing stands out like an exposition with a spotlight shining on the speaker. There’s also a perfect amount of dark humor to offset some of the more serious moments, so there’s never too much of one or the other
Billy and Dom are the two standouts as played by Castillo and Cavalero respectively. Both bring their characters to life with an exceptional turn, each showing a wide range of emotions and a rather interesting relationship that waggles between peers and one that has more of a student-teacher dynamic (which fits them in more ways than one).
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The Bad
Joseph: Not necessarily “bad” — because the film is too good to have anything truly fall under that label, but I do need to mention something for this category — is the fact that Cold Wallet follows the expected plot beats of this type of thriller, without adding much new. The style and verve at play, though, makes it easy to overlook this fact and have an entertaining time watching events unfold.
Mike: The only real problem, if you want to consider it as one, is that the stakes never seem too high (despite the whole home invasion and kidnapping thing). It’s interesting when Charles Hegel tries to make deals with each of his captors, but none of it seems to really go anywhere. A little more conflict between the trio of home invaders might have raised said stakes a little more.
The Verdict
Joseph: Cold Wallet is loaded with intrigue as Hegel tries to manipulate the trio of screwed-over robbers, and we ourselves start to wonder about the individual motivations of the protagonists. I give it a solid recommendation, as genre-film viewers who enjoy everyman characters placing themselves in dangerous situations in which they have no experience or know-how should find this thriller well worth a watch.
Mike: If you’re turned off by, or find home invasion films a little unsettling, don’t let those words turn you off of Cold Wallet which is less about the invading and more of trying to right some wrongs by a crypto bro. The script by John Hibey and Cutter Hodierne doesn’t fly above the viewers head with tons of crypto talk or talk down with over simplified explanations, instead providing just enough of each to keep things sounding natural. A little more conflict between the trio of protagonists would have been nice just to spice things up a little bit, but that’s more of a minor and possibly personal quibble.
All in all, Cold Wallet is a well put together film that should appeal to folks who enjoy a good meal of eating the rich peppered with some interesting characters.
Cold Wallet
Directed By: Cutter Hodierne
Written By: John Hibey, Cutter Hodierne
Starring: Otoja Abit, Genevieve Adams, Elizabeth Aspenlieder
Run Time: 1h 24m
Rating: NR
Release Date: March 8, 2024 (United States)
[There was no trailer available at the time of this review]
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