Relay (2025) - Film Review

      **Relay, 2025.**

      Directed by David Mackenzie.

      Starring Riz Ahmed, Lily James, Sam Worthington, Willa Fitzgerald, Jared Abrahamson, Pun Bandhu, Eisa Davis, Matthew Maher, Seth Barrish, Victor Garber, Reed Northrup, Aaron Roman Weiner, and Jessica Garza.

      **SYNOPSIS:**

      A broker of significant payoffs between corrupt companies and the individuals who threaten them violates his own principles when a new client seeks his protection to survive.

      Relay is akin to the cinematic versions of Joe Rogan or Elon Musk. At first, it appears to be intellectually stimulating, but as it progresses, it becomes increasingly evident that the film is quite foolish. To clarify, David Mackenzie (director of Hell or High Water) and screenwriter Justin Piasecki have not created a right-wing paranoia thriller but rather a film that ultimately devolves into sheer absurdity, undermining any goodwill established earlier. It is a convoluted thriller that would have been far superior without its major twist, which detracts from exploring themes such as loneliness, isolation, recovery from addiction, paranoid personalities, and even unexpected romance.

      This review must start this way because, even when there are positives to mention about the film, they must be accompanied by the warning that it will become utterly nonsensical for no apparent reason, rendering the audience's engagement with the story, characters, and themes up to that point irrelevant. There is no justified reason for the direction Relay takes, which up to that point is a clever and emotionally detached cat-and-mouse thriller.

      Riz Ahmed portrays an anonymous top-tier fixer operating in the shadows (referred to simply as Riz from here on, as he lacks an identity until the third act). However, instead of eliminating clients, his expertise lies in facilitating high-stakes truces between potential whistleblowers and corrupt corporations. His newest client is scientific researcher Sarah (Lily James), who is horrified to discover that a pesticide repellent for wheat she has been studying is quite deadly due to its side effects (such as diverticulitis, cancer, etc.) and that the company has erased evidence of those findings in its pursuit of FDA approval. Essentially, they plan to market the product without moral considerations for those who may suffer fatal consequences. Although Sarah does not intend to blow the whistle, she seeks to return the documents without facing fallout, as the harassment and threats she’s encountered have become overwhelming for her.

      In today's digital era, covering tracks is almost impossible, so Riz employs a middleman service for communication with his clients: they deliver a message, a handler transmits it to him via a typewriter-like device, and he replies, which the handler then communicates to the client. After the call, the center is legally bound to confidentiality and retains no records of the conversations. This arrangement seems plausible, even when millions' lives are at stake, but as noted multiple times, this film confidently presents itself as intelligent, only to stumble repeatedly.

      To be fair, Riz is a cunning strategist regarding Sarah’s safety, utilizing burner phones and USPS loopholes not just to send her copies of the actual product report but also to mislead the tracking information from a group of company henchmen (led by Sam Worthington) pursuing her to recover the documents by any means necessary. Numerous scenes cleverly combine stealth, quirky instructions, evasion, and intriguing secrecy. One operatic scene even escalates to a physical confrontation as the situation becomes increasingly perilous.

      Compounding the complexity is Riz’s status as a recovering alcoholic who entered this dubious and hazardous profession due to his obsessive attention to detail and desire to assist others. He is also a loner who develops feelings for Sarah. This situation becomes somewhat unsettling as he lurks in the shadows for her safety, but there’s an implication that she lacks other support as well. Consequently, Riz begins taking greater risks—risking exposure to her and to those trying to capture both of them—in pursuit of a connection that starts to bridge the film’s emotionally sterile narrative. With light-hearted references to The Beatles and brief exchanges that go beyond mere protection, there’s a hint that Sarah may also feel an attraction to the man saving her life.

      Directed with palpable tension and featuring a distinctive communication method, Relay offers this and various engaging themes. All it needs to do is deliver a moderately satisfactory conclusion. Instead, everything collapses, leaving only the message that it fails to hold together.

      **Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★**

      Robert Kojder