The Killing of Two Lovers

White male rage pulsates in Robert Machoian's pacey psychological drama about a man attempting to reconcile with the mother of his four children. Living in small-town Utah, David (Clayne Crawford) and Niki (Sepideh Moafi) have been married for over a decade. Once childhood sweethearts, they have agreed to separate. But when David moves back in with his dad down the road, he struggles to cope, and things worsen in his eyes when Niki starts seeing another man. From the film's startling opening sequence, David's anger and sense of betrayal constantly threatens to boil over, and disturbing sound editing neatly portrays his fraying mental state as he switches between family man and potential menace. Machoian maintains this simmering tension throughout, and the unsettling result is more akin to a horror movie, as The Killing of Two Lovers portrays the ever-present danger of a man scorned.