Unidentified, 2025.

Written and Directed by Haifaa al-Mansour.
Starring Mila Al-Zahrani, Aziz Gharbawi, Shafi Al Harthy, Adwa Alasiri, and Othoub Sharar.

SYNOPSIS:

A grieving mother, fueled by her passion for true crime, seeks answers when a teenage girl is found dead in the desert and the police investigation stalls.

From writer/director Haifaa al-Mansour, Unidentified is one of those thrillers that one can’t help wanting to jump forward to the end when talking about it, as it contains a sinking major twist that isn’t just preposterous, but rather not even the same grounded tone exploring real-world social issues in Riyadh, exchanging that for trashy airport novel vibes. When the reveal is unfolding, it feels as if it is from another movie entirely. That’s also not to say the filmmaker isn’t still aiming for something regarding patriarchal commentary, but all that can be seen is an absurd turn of events that don’t necessarily need to be here; if anything, this would be passable if it had ended about ten minutes earlier.

In a unique angle for murder mysteries, the story is centered on aspiring police detective Noelle (Mila Al-Zahrani, effectively playing a woman haunted by her past and the misogynistic culture around her that doesn’t allow women the same chances at freedom or thriving), compulsively watching an influencer breaking down various American murder mysteries and culprit tactics while working in a precinct scanning files with the many men around her under the assumption that she isn’t equipped to handle anything more beyond that. Upon the discovery of a dead teenage girl, the slight wrinkle comes in that the detectives aren’t only looking for a suspect, but also the identity of the woman. If she isn’t claimed by loved ones in roughly two weeks, the body will be buried in an unmarked grave. As for Noelle, she becomes overwhelmed by the feeling that this could have been her.

After a sluggish start, which sees Noelle brought into the fold more to get her thoughts on the crime scene, she begins going against the orders of her superiors to further dig around for information, eventually coming into contact with two girls at a high school who knew the dead girl. Soon after that, she starts receiving cryptic text messages from unknown senders related to whatever happened (a prologue does keep viewers marginally ahead, informing us that the body was driven out into the desert and dropped there dead). Where Unidentified truly starts to get interesting and wildly different from American murder mysteries is that the deceased is identified relatively halfway through, with the story shifting more into a family that doesn’t want to claim the girl as theirs, for reasons related to sexism and what the girl was doing. 

Perhaps a misstep, the film is also concerned with shading in some of Noelle’s interior life, with a disapproving brother who thinks she should get married again (she was already in an arranged marriage for five years and divorced, while barely looking 25) instead of striving to become a detective. There is also some business about the ex-husband being abusive, and a stillborn daughter, mostly serving as a distraction that doesn’t add much. That subplot is here for a reason, but unfortunately, nearly all the wrong ones. No favors are done by the awful color grading in these flashbacks and performances that feel straight from a soap opera.

Engaging and refreshing when Noelle is trying to get through to this family that the girl is still part of them, there are a couple of sobering, sad conversations. Whenever shifting back into trying to pin the killer, there is always that sneaking suspicion that the answer will be ridiculous. For a film that already takes some time to get away from dry generic interrogations and build momentum, that identifiable aspect of the ruins Unidentified.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★

Robert Kojder

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=embed/playlist

Here’s your one sentence pitch for “The Million Dollar Bet.”

A doesn’t-sweat-anything gambler talks “friends” into betting him that he can’t run 70 miles in 24 hours — in Vegas — with a sandstorm bearing down on Sin City.

You’ve got a gambling milieu, a couple of ticking clocks — the 24 hour “race” challenge, and the freak-event sandstorm (Vegas got a doozy of one in July of 2025) — inveterate gamblers, a life-threatening bet and a “true story” tag.

But true or not, collection of “colorful” if cliched characters and interesting stakes be damned, this thing never comes together.

Justin Cornwell plays Jack, a card player/gambler on a bit of a “run,” when the problems of his younger casino-trolling pal Hank (Douglas Smith) take a fresh turn.

Twentysomething Hank, out of shape but a “natural athlete,” wants Jack and others to make a “prop bet” on his ability to run the near-equivalent of three consecutive marathons in 24 hours.

The film starts to go wrong as the financing, the payout, the odds and the architecture of this bet is skimmed over and never explained. We know Jack doesn’t have that kind of cash. We know Hank doesn’t, but is fond of wild “prop bets” which are sometimes epic over-reaches.

As neither of them has a million bucks (it starts out at $150k) or a stake to put up, as others aren’t seen “getting in on the action,” where is the three-to-one odds payout coming from?

Hank’s a Vegas native, with a cranky, protective chain-smoking mom (Carrie Gibson), a dull stepdad (Todd Carroll) he ignores and a doting sister (Kristen Lee Gatoskie) who gave up the :dirty money” of casino card dealing for a new career in go-kart repair.

Jack tries to call Hank’s bluff, but he’d really hope he’ll talk himself out of this. Hank’s sister tries to convince him and his mother tries to order him to bail (and Jack to let Hank off the hook).

But Hank begins. He’ll need to average nearly three miles per hour, “no walking…taking as many breaks as I desire,” to manage 70 miles in 24 hours.

He’s doing 720 foot laps around the complex where he and Jack and “not taking sides” and not betting gambler pal Tony (Sean Rogers) live.

Colorful, cliched neighbors — the angsty, thinks-too-much tween, the nosy little old lady from across the street, the 50something shirtless Euro trash who rides his skateboard with his dog pulling it for exercise — track Hank and chat words of encouragement or discouragement.

Everybody pressures Jack to back down. An emergency room doc talks about how deadly it cam be for somebody out of shape to attempt a marathon in Vegas, much less nearly THREE marathons.

And that damned storm is coming.

I was halfway through “Million Dollar Bet,” taking notes on “dialogue that sounds ‘typed’ and not lived or spoken by living, breathing characters” before I realized it’s an Austrian production. So yes, English as a Second Language dialogue takes one out of this Thomas Woschitz film from time to time.

Cornwell, of TV’s “The In-Between,” has an interesting but not arresting screen presence.

“Guys, it’s a bet, not a funeral” was never going to pack a punch, and Cornwell soft sells it to boot.

Former child actor Smith (TV’s “Big Love” And “Big Little Lies”) shows us little that indicates edge, mania, cunning or even a character’s interior life.

The supporting players don’t register much more than that, but they’re not “carrying” the picture.

Woschitz has been around for a while — “Bad Luck” and “Universalove” are his best-known Austrian films — but he struggles to make even the simple ticking clock elements tick over.

And the payoff is more disappointing than the disappointments that precede it.

The pitch might have felt like a sure thing, but plot holes and cut rate casting made “Million Dollar Bet” a long shot all along.

Rating: unrated

Cast: Justin Cornwell, Douglas Smith, Kristen Lee Gatoskie, Sean Rogers, Billie Steiner, Todd Carrol, Dee Catrone and Carrie Gibson.

Credits: Directed by Thomas Woschitz, scripted by Andrea Liva and Thomas Woschitz. A Narrative Distribution release on Amazon Prime.

Running time: 1:29

If aliens are out there watching our movies, they definitely think high school is some form of purgatory. They might be right. In this new Hulu comedy (releasing June 17), the 2008 class of a small-town high school finds out that they didn’t actually graduate. In their mid-thirties, this group of unhappy people has to return to North Meadows High to complete their last two weeks of school—and their regrets, failed romances, and other tortures are still waiting for them. 

Starring John Reynolds, Sofia Black-D’Elia, Carmen Christopher, Jo Firestone, and Gary Richardson, with Topher Grace, Never Change! is an absurdist comedy directed by Marty Schousboe and written by Reynolds that’s about being forced to change and facing demons. It’s also a movie that reminds me that humor is subjective. It’s apt in satirizing the intersections between who these characters hoped to be as teenagers and everything (absolutely everything) that went wrong afterward. Finding its truths in a combination of relatable moments and classic High School movie references, there’s something here that might’ve worked somewhere between Gross Pointe Blank and The Big Chill—maybe even The Four Seasons—all dialed up to the peaks of absurdity.

However, I was not amused. You know that meme where the choir sings, “What the hell!? What the hellie?” I am the meme. The gags keep gagging until they’re a choking hazard. But Richardson’s “Watch this” scene is incredible. And although the cast is up for whatever and the filmmakers go full stream-of-consciousness while telling a cohesive story, I wanted to spit this movie out. I admire what they’re going for but…Yeah, I think we’re done here.