On-Demand: The Killing of Two Lovers (2020) - Reviewed

Courtesy of NEON

Writer-director Robert Machoian has been quietly active in the independent film scene since the late 2000s, starting with his short film Ella and the Astronaut in 2008 before moving onto his first feature in 2013 with the searing family drama Forty Years from Yesterday.  His latest project The Killing of Two Lovers, given a limited theatrical release by NEON followed by a streaming digital release shortly thereafter in May 2021, continues in the director’s focus on troubled characters going through some form of familial or otherwise personal strife while also flirting with notions of violence echoing the darker weathers conjured up by Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver.
 
Set in the rural mountainous and open plains of Utah the film follows David (Clayne Crawford), a family man with a daughter and three sons in the midst of a bitter divorce from his wife Nikki (Sepideh Moafi).  Estranged from his family save for few visitations apart from occasional embittered family reunions, he lives with his ailing father whom he cares for when he isn’t working cleanup jobs on farmlands.  Growing increasingly frustrated and angry towards Nikki and her smug new boyfriend Derek (Chris Coy), the thought of just up and offing the both of them and being done with the whole affair keeps coming and coming, eating at David’s (and the film’s) psyche.

Courtesy of NEON

 
Shot in claustrophobic Academy Ratio by Oscar Ignacio Jiminez with many wide shots of the protagonist posited in the middle of the frame, the impression one immediately gets stepping into the world of The Killing of Two Lovers is one of encroachment.  From start to finish, something is amiss with David whom we start to gather is a bit of a neurotic unreliable narrator.  Acted beautifully by Clayne Crawford who saddles the whole picture upon his shoulder’s, the camera follows this bearded troubled soul as his daily routine is interrupted by thoughts of just breaking into his ex-wife’s home and ending it all.  Throughout the film we’re never really sure how much the character of David is actually doing or how much is simply imagined.
 
Almost as integral to the film’s suffocating visual palette is the sound design which sounds like Einstürzende Neubauten played backwards, with subtle industrial rumblings and scratching creeping from the front of the soundstage to the rear speakers.  It builds towards a shriek before abruptly stopping and then building again, sometimes even when nothing is happening onscreen, suggesting David is a ticking time bomb that could go off at any second.  It is an anxiety inducing listening experience which only makes the film’s sharp edits and juxtapositions land with a hard and heavy drop.

Courtesy of NEON

 
While some will come away a bit mystified by the picture overall, particularly by how it challenges and then upends your expectations, I personally found The Killing of Two Lovers to be an engrossing little ride, a nerve-wracking marital strife drama with hints of foreboding dread potentially leading to violence soaking every inch of the picture.  Though new to this director’s work, Robert Machoian shows immense promise with his third feature which further cements NEON as one of the best film distribution companies releasing movies today!

--Andrew Kotwicki