Sympathy for the Devil (2023)

3 Stars (out of 4)

Drive Bomb

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

So taut and lean that it doesn't even pause to give its characters names, the cat-and-mouse thriller Sympathy for the Devil succeeds thanks to its vigorous performances by a cool Kinnaman and a crackers Cage.

A Las Vegas man (Joel Kinnaman) takes his son to be looked after by the boy's grandmother, so that the man can join his wife in the hospital for the birth of their new baby. In the parking garage, another man (Nicolas Cage) climbs in his car, threatens him with a gun, and tells him to start driving.

The driver tries to assess how much danger he's actually in, and whether he'll be able to get back to his wife after driving the passenger to his destination. He also keeps his eyes open for possible ways to escape. But the more they drive, the more the passenger seems to have some kind of agenda. He stalls, and he plays mind games, and it soon becomes apparent that the passenger has targeted our driver for a reason.

Sympathy for the Devil begins wisely, as it establishes the driver that the driver and his wife had previously lost a child before the successful birth of their son; so this particular pregnancy has high stakes, and the driver needs to be there. From there, the screenplay cleverly balances tension with bonkers moments of dialogue (the driver interrupting the passenger one too many times). Words fly sideways like bullets in a crossfire.

In one sequence, the passenger suddenly announces "let's eat! They stop for a bravura sequence it a diner that begins with an argument over cheese and tuna melts, and climaxes with Cage strutting to the tune of the jukebox and wreaking all manner of havoc.

Ultimately, Sympathy for the Devil is no Tarantino. It doesn't go very deep, and the final motivation behind everything is so ordinary that it's a letdown, but for most of its running time, it's a good, diverting B-movie.