Nicholas Hoult killed someone. Or did he?

Juror #2 came out in November and gathered $21 million on a $35 million budget, albeit in a limited release window which is crazy because it still ended up making a good amount of money. It’s disappointing seeing a guy like Clint Eastwood remanded to direct-to-video for what may be his last film because nothing about the movie warrants such a cold shoulder. Juror #2 is a fantastic movie and those of you with Max should watch it. Or pirate it, I don’t care.

Directed by lesser known child actor Clint Eastwood, Juror #2 stars lesser known child actor Nicholas Hoult as the titular Juror #2 or “Justin Kemp” as he’s known by family and friends. Kemp is a recovering alcoholic whose wife Allison Crewson (Zoey Deutch) is very pregnant, and also the two have some tragic backstory because movies like this always require tragic backstories.

Kemp finds himself confined as juror #2 on a jury empaneled to determine the guilt of one James Michael Sythe (Gabriel Basso) who is accused of killing his girlfriend and daughter of the director Kendall Carter (Francesca Eastwood). The problem with this case is that Kemp is very certain that Sythe is not guilty. Not completely sure, but confident. How does he know that James Michael Sythe didn’t kill Kendall Carter? Well, he’s pretty sure that he’s the real killer. Bum bum buuuuuum.

Only he’s not really sure that he’s the killer. Kemp hit something on that same stretch of road on the heavily raining night that Kendall Carter was killed, but he never saw what he hit and it might have just been a deer. It was right near a deer crossing sign. Or he did and he’s bullshitting the audience. That’s completely up for interpretation. Was he drunk? He says he wasn’t, but wouldn’t anyone in that situation? He is a recovering alcoholic after all and the story doesn’t put him in a great light.

Juror #2 has a great cast and a strong crew of characters, including Toni Collette as the prosecutor Faith Killebrew, an assistant District Attorney who is using this case as her stepping stone for winning the election for DA. Killebrew really wants to nail Sythe and has laid her election on the line for it. But she also wants to bring the right person to justice, and slowly begins to realize that things might not be as they seem.

Chris Messina plays the public defender, who cares.

J.K. Simmons is here as Harold Chicowski, a fellow juror with a lot to contribute, alongside a great crew with Cedric Yarbrough, Leslie Bibb, Adrienne C. Moore, and a bunch of people who don’t have Wikipedia pages. Also Kiefer Sutherland is here as Kemp’s attorney and Amy Aquino is here as the judge. Like I said, great cast. A number of the jurors have their own stories that motivate their biases toward and against Sythe. It’s a slow burning drama that feels perfect for a 94 year old director.

What makes Juror #2 such a strong story is that it allows the audience to also be the jury. Kemp is fairly certain that he may be responsible for Carter’s death, but he doesn’t know. It’s seemingly equally possible that Sythe is guilty or innocent. The film lets us stew on the information given, which paints a wholly incomplete picture of both men’s alibi and character, and lets us draw the conclusion. It’s an up-in-the-air movie that goes right up until the end and keeps driving off into the sunset without us.

If you’re looking for a film with a concrete ending that ties everything up in a neat bow, Juror #2 is going to leave you disappointed. If you want a film that’ll give you plenty to think and talk about, well this is the movie for you. Oh and the soundtrack is fantastic.

Rating: A+