Compared to the shadowy host who abducted these seven people, U.N. Owen was a model
of hospitality in And Then There Were None. At least he was decent
enough to murder his guests himself. This unwelcoming mastermind expects them
to do it for him. They must choose a victim to kill amongst themselves, but no
volunteers, or else. Of course, it is never just one, is it? Clearly, the seven
(mostly) strangers are in a heap of trouble in Manolo Cardona’s Death’s
Roulette, which is now streaming on Paramount+.
Simon
is a cop. Armando is a doctor. Teresa is a flight attendant and Jose is a
retiree. As far as they know, they share no connection to Esteban, a powerful
industrial, his entitled wife Marta, or their rebellious tree-hugger daughter
Lupe. Nevertheless, all seven wake-up groggy, trapped in a drawing room worthy
of Clue, over-looking the ocean. Via an old-timey teletype machine, the
unseen host explains the rules. They need to chose a victim. Nobody can offer
themselves as a sacrifice, but once the decision is made, the “lottery-winner”
must willingly accept his or her fate. If no choice is made, he will kill them
all.
The
shadowy puppet master has two very lethal lackeys to enforce the rules, as the
not-so-magnificent seven quickly learn. He obviously means business, so the
guests try to quickly figure out what they have in common, while literally
debating the life-and-death issue at-hand.
Admittedly,
Death’s Roulette is like a lot of other Christie rip-offs and revenge
thrillers, but screenwriters Gavo Amiel, Frank Ariza, and Julieta Steinberg
come up with enough fresh wrinkles to keep it interesting. Thesp-director Cardona
nicely capitalizes on the claustrophobic setting and atmospheric trappings. This
film straddles genre borders, but it probably leans more towards mystery-thriller
than horror.
If you're a character who gets a lot of flashbacks, chances are you did
some bad stuff in the past. Miami is flashback city for these five former high
school friends. The word “friend” is overstating matters, but they definitely
have some scandalous shared history that gets them blackmailed at the start of Ramon
Campos, Teresa Fernandez-Valdes, and Gema R. Neira’s Now & Then,
which premieres today on Apple TV+.
Twenty
years ago, entitled Alejandro died under complicated circumstances that will
take eight episodes of flashbacks to fully illuminate. An unrelated motorist
also met her demise that night. Whatever happened, five former friends got away
with it—then. Now, on the eve of their twenty-year reunion, an unknown
blackmailer is demanding $1,000,000 each. Again, they think they get away with
it when the blackmailer is murdered, even though the money is still missing,
but the subsequent investigation turns into agonizing water torture.
As
fate would have it, Sgt. Flora Neruda, the rookie detective on the case twenty
years ago is now a veteran handling the contemporary investigation. Of course,
she immediately links the two inquiries. She generates a lot of uncomfortable
heat, especially for Pedro Cruz, who is the Democrat candidate for Miami Dade
mayor, running on a platform of immigration liberalization (even though it is a
federal issue). Inconveniently, he borrowed his share of the ransom from his
campaign funds, which is highly illegal.
Sofia
Mendieta also had trouble raising the funds, so she stole it from her criminal
associate Bernie. To evade his thugs, she foists herself on her old flame, Marcos
Herrero, whose wealthy but controlling father “fixed” everything twenty years
ago. However, her presence is a little off-putting to his fiancée Isabel, but
she tries to be cool, until their carrying-on just gets too blatant.
N&T
is
all kinds of lurid and super-slick. In some ways, it is a throwback to the
trashy miniseries of the 1980s. Apple is billing it as a “bilingual” series,
but it is largely divorced from the culture and certainly the politics of Miami’s
Cuban, Venezuelan, and Brazilian communities. However, there is sex and
betrayal by the cigar-boat-load, so nobody is going to be bored by it.
