Synopsis
Recently fired and facing eviction, a new dad has his life turned upside down when he meets a wealthy couple who offer a path to financial security... but at a price.
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Cast
- Pat HealyCraig
- Ethan EmbryVince
- Sara PaxtonViolet
- David KoechnerColin
- Amanda FullerAudrey
- Laura CovelliCaryn
- Elissa DowlingTweaker
- Todd FarmerSecurity Guard
- Eric Neil GutierrezEnrique
- Sam KetchersideAngry Stripper
Recommendations
- 75
The Playlist
Unlike most movies that use the current economic crisis as a dramatic backdrop, Healy's character is vibrant enough that the audience can make an easy connection and go through the journey with him. - 75
RogerEbert.com
This is a solid thrill ride all around, especially for those who like their Faustian parables with a bit of the bloody red stuff. - 70
The Dissolve
The film advances some harsh truths about the spoils of money-grubbing savagery. But Cheap Thrills doesn’t take a scolding tone: These lessons come in the form of a rowdy, midnight-movie entertainment that keeps its considerable ambition under wraps. - 70
Los Angeles Times
Healy and Embry commit to their enervating roles with a heady mix of desperation and gusto, while Koechner is cleverly modulated as the evening's madman emcee. But Paxton, as the complicit yet impassive Violet, remains mostly a shiny accessory. - 67
Austin Chronicle
Erich von Stroheim might have made the definitive film about human swinishness way back in 1924 – sorry, Gordon Gekko – but Cheap Thrills cuts deeper, darker, and straight to the bone. - 63
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
A nasty, elemental thriller, basically a four-character play with blood and guts and sex and drugs and dares - 60
Village Voice
Katz stages the contests with infectious energy... Too bad the last half hour feels like Katz is rubbing our face in the several turds he shows us, reminding us that people are awful. Of course they are. What else do you have to tell us? - 50
Slant Magazine
The film's clearest winner is Pat Healy, whose depiction of a man willing to corrode his entire life to provide for his wife and kid feels true despite the script's silliest moments.
