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Plot Holes Are a Feature, Not a Bug
As exemplified by Christopher Landon’s new thriller, ‘Drop’
One of the most important lessons I learned from film school was, for most genre pictures, efficiency is more important than sense. Christopher Landon’s new thriller, Drop, offers a crash course in that lesson.
I suspect many viewers and critics will dismiss this movie for being nonsensical and silly. They will be correct. But they’ll also be depriving themselves of one of the most exciting movies I’ve seen so far this year.
The premise is simple enough: While on a first date at a fancy restaurant, Violet (Meghann Fahy) receives several anonymous “Air Dropped” messages on her phone. Initially, they’re just strange, but they become increasingly threatening until they become a series of instructions for her to follow. If she doesn’t, her son will be murdered.
Violet tries to alert others to what’s going on, but the person on the other end of the messages remains one step ahead of her. Meanwhile, she tries to figure out who that person is and how they manage to know everything she’s doing, but since everyone’s on their phones at the restaurant anyway, there’s no easy way to narrow down the list of suspects.
None of this is revolutionary in terms of this subgenre of thriller, with the…
