COLD WALLET Review: Intentions And Tempers Collide In Cutter Hodierne’s White-Hot Heist Thriller
Cutter Hodierne’s new movie, Cold Wallet, is another one of those titles that surprised me this month. It definitely bodes as a fascinating filmic communiqué that the crime genre on its head in a few ways, and resonantly so with an ending that hits with chilling, redemptive effect.
We meet Billy (Raúl Castillo), a Redditor on the brink of potentially buying a new home to share with his daughter thanks to his hitherto earnings in cryptotrading along with friend Dom (Tony Cavalero). What Billy doesn’t know is that his earnings are about to crash following the presumed death of coin creator Charles (Josh Brener).
As the story kicks off, it is not long before he learns from fellow Redditor, Eva (Melonie Diaz), that Charles is possibly alive, ensuing a tenuous partnership by the ragtag trio to brave their wintery trip to infiltrate Charles’s remote mansion and demand their money back. What follows is a deadly battle of wits, weapons and demons, in a deadly overnight game where old adages about loyalty and trust are put to the test.
The result with Cold Wallet, penned by Hodierne with co-writer John Hibey, is a pulsating crypto crime thriller that scratches the itch some. A lesser script would have satirized this film and ignored a lot of what is so prevalent about the rickety crypto trade. It is real, and it works for some who have the means to invest and possibly stay the course. I don’t exist in that space, but that’s just me, although the subject matter here works wonders in its applications to story and characterization.
The first few moments are some of the most chaotic as we meet Billy’s family, and it’s not exactly on the best of terms right then despite it being his daughter’s birthday. A brief shot of Billy’s phone screen as he’s trying to plead his case to his ex-wife lends an evocative preamble into the psychological pressure cooker that the film turns into.
That intensity certainly extends between Billy and Dom, a peacenik who runs an MMA gym and has his own stake in the bitcoin, and Eva, who has her own means of contributing to the group’s efforts as the one with just a little more resolve.
The balance here between the three is constantly shifting, put to the test at every whim once they’re inside the home and seize Charles, taking him hostage. This comes as the result of a team not exactly working in unison, which makes the seemingly benign Charles all the more menacing as he underhandedly attempts to get his kidnappers to turn on one another.
Hodierne’s narrative feature debut burns slowly enough in its genre space that it doesn’t keep you waiting to long. Almost each moment leaves you with little assurance as to what will happen next, all before someone gets shot with a gun or a crossbow nobody saw coming; Hats off to Anthony Hoang, David Lavallee Jr. and Amy Greene as stunt coordinators on this end. Moreover, at least two people die amid the upheaval of this story before the credits roll, heightening the tension and the stakes as we follow these characters beyond the breaking point.
Cold Wallet is about how violence and justice are measured for a man seeking redemption by the most desperate means. It asks a few big questions in these respects, and the answers are as damning as they are poetic.
Native New Yorker. Been writing for a long time now, and I enjoy what I do. Be nice to me!
