Any moment now my door is going to be kicked in and the police arrived, because instead of watching wall to wall Queen based coverage I watched a Netflix movie called I Came By. But you know what, I Came By is such an uncommonly good thriller it’ll have been worth it. Written and directed by British-Iranian autuer Babak Anvari, it’s so excellently twisty it presents a problem for the reviewer: we want you to watch stuff we think is great, but it’s very hard to write a lot when you can’t get too far into what happens. So, sorry about the length, we’ll do our best.
Graffiti writer Toby breaks into the houses of the elite and leaves behind his tag I Came By, letting them know he can get into their homes whenever he wants. One day, he breaks into the property of former leading Judge Hugh Bonneville, and chaos ensues. Toby is brilliantly acted by George Mackay, who is constantly wired and angry… and you might not like him but you will like his tenacious mother played by Kelly Macdonald. We shouldn’t ignore the solid work from Percelle Ascott as the best mate, but high praise to Hugh Bonneville who plays a superbly believable antagonist.
And that’s all your getting. I’ve seen a lot of crime thrillers which follow the same template, and I’m pleased to say that I Came By diverts from it very quickly and keeps moving. There are twists all the way through so… give it a go. Although I suppose TV will be back to normal now. However, I must give one final credit, as important as any I’ve given so far: the cinematography in this is brilliant, rich and dark and unctuous.
9/10
I stumbled over this on Netflix last week but gave it a miss because I saw High Bonneville was in it and didn’t trust he’d make a decent thriller – will check it out after this 🙂