The one thing you can’t say about actor Bill Skarsgård is that he has one of those faces. What he has shown over the years, is that he has many faces, not necessarily his own, playing the likes of Pennywise the clown in the It franchise on film and TV, and as Nosferatu, lathered in thick layers of make-up.

In Gus Van Sant’s latest however, he not only stars as a regular human, but a real life one at that.

It’s a snowy day in 1977 Indianapolis, and Tony Kiritsis (Skarsgård) is making his way into an office building to meet with his mortgage broker M.L. Hall (Al Pacino), only to be told that he’s not there. He’s seen instead by his son Richard (Dacre Montgomery).

He takes him up to his dad’s office to discuss any issues he has, but Tony has more than that on his mind. Once in the office, he takes out a gun, and wires a shot gun with wire around the neck, so if he makes any sudden movements, he’ll have a fairly large hole in his head.

Tony’s plan isn’t to hold him hostage there, he wants to leave the building, but he broke his car key on the way into it, so has to come up with another plan, which involves walking down the street, with Richard with the wire still around his neck, to his car.

As you would expect, this gathers a lot of attention, which Tony wants, as he wants to tell the world how this mortgage company have screwed him over. And he wants to use this media attention to get what he wants, but can he get away with it?

It’s been seven long years since Van Sant’s last film Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot, and he returns with a gripping thriller, based on a true event, despite being rather on the incredulous side.

There is actual archive footage of the event however, which Van Sant recreates in the film, as we follow Tony and Richard over a period of days.

Skarsgård makes a believable human being, which shows he has good range, although ironically his performance and visual look resembles that of a young Michael Shannon, so maybe he’s just wearing a different kind of mask. Still, he’s captivating throughout, with an edginess where you don’t know how it’s going to play out, unless you’re familiar with the story.

Van Sant’s direction is very authentic towards the seventies, capturing both the look and feel of the decade, as well as the way the media presented itself at the time, with a news team on the ground featured. And although the subject matter is serious, Sant’s approach is most definitely on the playful side.

The film certainly falls into the strange-but-true category, and Van Sant brings it to life in a polished, stylised fashion, with Skarsgård once again bringing a larger than life character to the big screen that is totally transfixing.