American Murderer Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.0

American Murderer Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 21, 2022

American Murderer is one of those "ripped from the headlines" true crime thrillers, but the kind of curious fact is even though focal bad guy Jason Derek Brown (portrayed by Tom Pelphrey in the film) was and assumedly still is a real life person who was once ensconced on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list next to "folks" like Osama bin Laden, for whatever reason few seem to remember him these days, if they even recognize his name at all. Brown was (I'll refer to him in the past tense for the purposes of this review) an unrepentant con man who actually scammed innumerable people, but probably was a "candidate" for the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list due to the murder of an armored car guard whom Brown was suspected of having killed. American Murderer attempts to deconstruct (in more ways than one) the story of Brown, with a ping ponging narrative that flits with several timelines in what may be an unnecessary artifice. The underlying tale here is a pretty traditional cat and mouse scenario where Brown attempts to stay one step ahead of dogged FBI agent Lance Leisling (Ryan Philippe). This marks the feature film debut of director Matthew Gentile, who also wrote (it looks like Gentile has one previous feature film writing credit, Frontman ).

The old debate of "nature vs. nurture" isn't really debated all that much in American Murderer, since it's ultimately detailed that Brown probably unsurprisingly had a pretty rough upbringing courtesy of two dysfunctional parents, Jeanne (Jacki Weaver) and David (Kevin Corrigan). But this subplot, along with arguably less than fully developed sidebars involving a number of other characters, including would be romantic partner Melanie (Idina Menzel), may not offer that much additional value, other than showing that while Jason's straits may not have initially been his own fault, he ultimately is forced into some sort of accountability, even if that means simply staying on the lam.

If the structural conceits here aren't especially necessary, the film has some decent performances going for it, though Philippe is consigned to "tamped down special agent" mode. Pelphrey, who reminded me quite a bit of Fred Armisen for whatever reason, is actually quite charming in what is essentially a pretty troubled and troubling role. The film offers some nice location work in my birth state of Utah, and it ends with a bit of a text crawl alluding to the fact that "the rest of the story" has yet to be told, as Brown is still on the loose, if no longer on the Top Ten Wanted list.

American Murderer Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

American Murderer is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in the relatively unusual aspect ratio of 2.24:1. The closing credits roll feature the Alexa logo, and I'm assuming this had a 2K DI (as always with my reviews, if anyone has authoritative verifiable technical information, private message me, and I'll happily update things here). This is a sharp and appealing if not exactly visually mind blowing presentation that only encounters a few passing issues, as in a club scene that has some aggressive purple lighting where things can look a bit noisy. The outdoor material in particular pops quite well, even if looks like things may have been shot in fall or early winter (look at those great Wasatch mountains covered in snow in the background of several shots). Fine detail on close ups is generally commendable.

American Murderer Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

American Murderer features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that can spring into surround action intermittently, often courtesy of a source cue laden score as well as some effective underscore by Matthew Gentile's brother Scott, who also seems to be an up and coming conductor. Several outdoor scenes also offer decent ambient environmental effects. This doesn't have any real slam bang action elements, and as such dynamic range can be a little limited and a lot of scenes tend to play out relatively tamely in two hander dialogue moments, all of which are rendered cleanly and clearly. Optional English and Spanish subtitles are available.

American Murderer Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Writer / Director Matthew Gentile


• Proof of Concept Short (HD; 5:51) was done in 2018 as a "calling card" for the film.


• Preparing for "Action": The Visual Design of American Murderer (HD; 12:02) features Matthew Gentile and director of photography Kalilah Robinson and discusses the challenges of filming during the pandemic.


• What's Left Behind: Making American Murderer (HD; 17:33) again features Gentile, along with Tom Pelphrey, discussing the production.

Additionally, a digital copy is included and packaging features a slipcover.

American Murderer Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This film had a couple of weird locational tethers to my own life history which kind of made me laugh, since I was born and raised largely in Salt Lake City, where a lot of this story takes place (Brown was LDS and actually served on a mission). The closing text crawl also mentions that the missing Brown's car was found at the Portland International Airport, and I have lived a lot of my adult life in Oregon's largest city. Vis a vis Salt Lake and Utah in general, I've long joked that it's the only place where even Jews are Gentiles, but director Matthew Gentile's own surname might (also jokingly) make him doubly qualified for that signifier one way or the other. Some of Gentile's structural flourishes may serve mostly as detours to what is inherently a rather interesting if oft told tale, but the film will probably provide interest to true crime aficionados, especially those who like cat and mouse offerings like Catch Me If You Can. Technical merits are generally solid and the supplements enjoyable for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.