Something to watch tonight: Tuesday 22 October

Maggie Moore(s) (Slattery, 2023)

For New Zealand genre film fans, the annu­al Terror-Fi fest­iv­al is a high­light (at least if you live in Wellington and Auckland).

This year’s pro­gramme was announced earli­er this week (and the screen­ings kick off on Halloween week­end) so I thought I would go back to my pre­view of the 2023 edi­tion for RNZ and see what was now avail­able online.

While Terror-Fi is largely a hor­ror and sci-fi genre show­case, there’s also a bit of crime and I really enjoyed Maggie Moore(s):

A film in the comedy-thriller genre rather than hor­ror or science-fiction, Maggie Moore(s) might have come from pulp crime nov­el­ists like Elmore Leonard or dir­ect­ors like early Coens or John Dahl. And it’s set in the now famil­i­ar arid land­scape of Western New Mexico, home of Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul and Dark Winds.

The film reunites Mad Men stars John Slattery and Jon Hamm with Slattery behind the cam­era for only his second fea­ture. Hamm plays a recently wid­owed loc­al police chief who has joined a cre­at­ive writ­ing course to try and heal his loss.

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The rel­at­ively sleepy town is rocked by two bru­tal murders, both of women named Maggie Moore and the only con­nec­tion between them are their names.

Hamm and his deputy, played in a shrewd piece of cast­ing by Ted Lasso’s Nick Mohammed, find them­selves get­ting involved in some of the town’s many seedy secrets as they search for a cul­prit. Hamm also finds him­self get­ting involved with a wit­ness (played nicely by Tina Fey).

The best per­form­ance in the whole thing is by Micah Stock as one of the wid­owed Moores, a des­per­ate sand­wich shop fran­chisee who becomes increas­ingly unhinged as the film goes on.

If you like the super-relaxed ver­sion of Jon Hamm – and you should – I recom­mend you also check out the very funny Fletch reboot, Confess, Fletch which is a digit­al rent­al at the moment at AroVision in New Zealand.

Where to watch Maggie Moore(s)

Aotearoa: Streaming on Neon

Australia: Streaming on Stan

Canada: Streaming on Netflix

Ireland & UK: Streaming on Sky

USA: Streaming on Hulu