- Starring
- Elijah Wood, Luke Kirby, Aleksa Palladino
- Writer
- C. Robert Cargill
- Director
- Amber Sealey
- Rating
- n/a
- Running Time
- 100 minutes
- Release Date
- n/a
Overall Score
Rating Summary
This will be one of several reviews from this year’s Tribeca film Festival. To follow our coverage, click here.
True crime buffs rejoice! As far as No Man of God is concerned, they will be right at home with this film. As far as others are concerned, based on its subject matter and its overtly cold nature, its appeal may not be as strong. Perhaps the film doesn’t go as deep as it could have but fans of two people talking several times and getting heated over the course of 100 minutes or so will find plenty to enjoy here. That being said, the acting from Elijah Wood and Luke Kirby who shared most of those scenes here at least kept them interesting though in the end, it was hard to care for it with the film keeping audiences at a distance due to its lack of depth. The story here mostly revolved around a young FBI analyst named Bill Hagmaier (Wood) and his may investigative interviews with famed serial killer Ted Bundy (Kirby) over the final years of his life on death row.
Fans of the Netflix series Mindhunter will find some synergy with No Man of God as Hagmaier sought Bundy for some valuable insight on the psychology and backstory of serial killers but suffice it to say that it wasn’t as simple as that as Bundy proved to be a worthy adversary that saw through Hagmaier’s methods. Over their several interviews over the course of the late 1980s, the two men formed a relationship of sorts as the infamously difficult Bundy opened up. Those conversations, though occasionally heated, promoted some valuable insight as that process was still somewhat compelling to watch because of the strong performances from Wood and Kirby. However, that insight, though something that could be researched by viewers independently, and those scenes prompted little emotional connection therefore the emotional impact wasn’t there as it was hard to care for any of it. Meanwhile, already knowing Bundy’s ultimate fate, the film felt like a superfluous footnote.
At the end of the day, No Man of God is a solid crime drama that will go as far as the audience’s care about its subject material.
still courtesy of Tribeca
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The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.