Review: November Criminals

"He's not doing anything," an actor once said of acting opposite Gary Cooper, yet the camera revealed otherwise. There are performers who are such seemingly blank slates, and it often takes a certain director or directors who are canny enough to utilise that emptiness so that it is essential rather than detrimental to the work. One could argue that Catherine Deneuve or Monica Vitti, for example, were nothing without their directors.

Ansel Elgort is one such performer, his inherent one-dimensionality a boon in films such as The Fault in Our Stars and this year's Baby Driver but is otherwise a source of irritation in already shaky material like November Criminals. It's unfair to place the blame solely on Elgort's shoulders for the film's all-around ineptitude for director Sacha Gervasi, co-writer Steven Knight, and the rest of the cast are also responsible. Nevertheless, Elgort doesn't help matters by already putting off audience interest with his radioactive smugness within the film's opening seconds.

Elgort plays Addison, a high-school senior applying to the University of Chicago. He and best friend Phoebe (Chloë Grace Moretz, whose acting abilities become more and more suspect with each film) decide to lose their virginities to one another at seemingly the same time as his friend Kevin (Jared Kemp) is being shot to death at the local coffee shop in which he works as a barista. Kevin's death rattles Addison, especially since he's still recovering from his mother's recent death. Addison is less than thrilled that the police are labeling Kevin's death as gang-related since their judgement seems more based on race than actual evidence.

Thus, Addison determines to conduct his own investigation, much to the dismay of his father (David Strathairn), Phoebe and Phoebe's mother (Catherine Keener). His sleuthing dilutes the helplessness he feels over these arbitrary deaths, but it also maneuvers him into several dodgy situations. Perhaps it would be compelling if the whole affair didn't reek of a fourth-rate Hardy Boys mystery. It's genuinely impressive how weak and unremarkable November Criminals is, especially since Knight is capable of creating such captivating characters and circumstances (Locke, TV's Peaky Blinders and Taboo). November Criminals is bloodless at best, a waste at worst, and does absolutely nothing to justify its existence.

November Criminals

Directed by: Sacha Gervasi

Written by: Sacha Gervasi, Steven Knight; based on the novel by Sam Munson

Starring: Ansel Elgort, Chloë Grace Moretz, Catherine Keener, David Strathairn, Terry Kinney, Danny Flaherty, Tessa Albertson, Philip Ettinger