The Wolf Hour

A sensation of this year’s Sundance Festival. Dense, claustrophobic portrait of June Leigh, a young writer and counterculture figure who in 1977, due to depression, does not leave her cluttered apartment on Bronx. Heat wave lingers in New York; the city is terrorized by a serial killer called Son of Sam or 44 Caliber Killer. Someone starts to stalk June, ringing her doorbell for no reason, and the protagonist’s fear turns into paranoia. Locked within four walls, June limits contact with outside world to bare minimum, but she will eventually have to overcome her fears. Naomi Watt’s vibrant acting and a clever fusion of thriller and psychological ‘vivisection’ make The Wolf Hour one of the most important tales about “women under pressure” in American cinema in years. Alistair Bank Griffin meticulously recreates details of space and time—riot-ridden, dirty city, where Martin Scorsese’s taxi driver used to work back then.