The revenge thriller gets a feminist spin in A Vigilante, the first feature from Sarah Daggar-Nickson.
While it is notably different for having a female avenger, the film doesn’t appear to smooth the abrasive edges of the genre; our protagonist is still deeply troubled by her own past, and the intensity with which she goes about her work would be alarming no matter what she was up to. That her main goal is to punish abusive men and release families from their control is a brutal but noble mission, making the whole premise the usual mixture of primal excitement and moral ambiguity.
Daggar-Nickson is working from her own script here, so whether her first film sinks or swims is almost entirely on her. Luckily she’s got a solid lead in Olivia Wilde, who has done a wide variety of projects but never something as physically and mentally demanding as this. Such a character requires the actor to go to dark places, and it will be interesting to see how far out she can go.
A Vigilante earned strong reviews out of SXSW then weirdly sat on the shelf for an entire year. Perhaps we’ll get an explanation for why it was so delayed once the film is released, but hopefully it was just cold feet over the subject matter and not a reflection of quality.
A Vigilante is directed by Sarah Daggar-Nickson and stars Olivia Wilde, Morgan Spector, and Kyle Catlett. It will be released in the US on March 29th, 2019. For international release dates, click here.
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