Dallas Film Now.

Maika Monroe is one of the most talented actors working today, often elevating everything she touches (so much so, that I’m anticipating the latest Colleen Hoover adaptation just because she’s in it). And she does the same in Maxime Giroux’s In Cold Light, taking what would ordinarily be a cumbersome role as a junkie/ex-convict saddled with immense guilt trying to survive a drug war, and turning the whole affair in an unusually textured and unexpectedly touching examination of stoic reclamation.

Things start from bad to worse for Ava (Monroe) as the opening scene sees her coming off a high and rumbling into a house to complete a drug transaction. While her mind numbingly races, we see shadows of a SWAT team encroaching through the window behind her. Needless to say, they’re faster than her, and after a brief but kinetic foot chase, Ava is locked away for two years.

Upon release, she returns home where she receives no compassion from her rodeo-dreaming father (featuring another solid performance by Troy Kotsur) and. inevitably, falls back in with her brother (Jesse Irving) and his drug-dealing posse. In a very ill-conceived trip that sees Ava tagging along with her brother for a supposedly simple drug deal, she soon becomes embroiled in a run-hide-fight struggle between local criminals, corrupt police, and a sinister larger-than-life Canadian drug cartel.

In Cold Light features plenty of action (and two or three startling twists of violence), but it soon confines itself to the carnal survival mode that Ave shifts into over one very long night. But what makes the film stand out from other nasty little thrillers of the same ilk is Monroe’s ferocious, intelligent, and humane performance alongside director Giroux’s and screenwriter Patrick Whistler’s attention to the details. Filmed in both urban and rural locales in Alberta, Canada, the film pays attention to the neon-soaked chaos of the city while featuring some temporal shifts to the wind-swept steppes of the country that hyphenate the beauty and cruelty of both. In one scene, Ava awakes while masked people have a roman candle fight in the middle of the street, and the activity is giving no explanation, only that her escape into the night bumps up against the lives of others.

Also, the role of Kotsur as Ava’s father allows for the usage of sign language that not only accentuates the divide between Ava and him but serves as narrative device that works shrewdly later in the film. Their relationship is contentious to say the least for reasons revealed, but it’s a storytelling device that helps the climax hit a bit harder for the way their silence morphs throughout the film. For a film that initially concerns itself with the violence and repercussions of the drug trade, it ends on a surprisingly graceful note, which is just another unique and pleasantly surprising attribute of In Cold Light.

In Cold Light will debut on Digital and Video on Demand platforms beginning Tuesday February 24th.