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Benicio Del Toro slinks and weaves through Grant Singer ’s debut thriller “Reptile,” but the film struggles to develop a confident personality around him, ultimately coming apart at the seams. Clearly inspired by David Fincher ’s meticulousness—Singer too is a music video vet and has worked with The Weeknd , Skrillex, Sam Smith , and many more—“Reptile” is overly mannered and precious with its details, but its biggest misstep is its failure to understand that procedurals need to get narratively tighter and not just more convoluted. Del Toro always brings it, and this is actually one of his more intriguing performances in a long time, but one consistently wishes that it was in a movie that knew what to do with it.

Will Grady ( Justin Timberlake ) is a Scarborough real estate mogul dating an agent named Summer ( Matilda Lutz ). They flip foreclosures on expensive homes in the area under the watchful eye of Will’s mom, Camille ( Frances Fisher ), and there seems to be some brewing tension in the relationship. One day, Will meets Summer at a house she’s showing and finds her brutally murdered.

The suspects line up quickly for Detective Tom Nichols (Del Toro) and his partner Dan Cleary ( Ato Essandoh ). First, Grady couldn’t be creepier—Timberlake leans way too hard into the slimy silver spoon kid background of the kind of dude who lines up a new girlfriend who looks a lot like his dead one almost immediately. Will is clearly into some shady shit, but he found the body, right? Or did he? Could it be Summer’s soon-to-be ex-husband Sam ( Karl Glusman )? He, too, is sketched as a few cards short of a full deck, introduced on CCTV footage cutting a stranger’s hair so he can turn it into art. Yeah, he’s weird. That’s not it! The cavalcade of creeps on the suspect list also includes Eli Phillips ( Michael Pitt ), a guy whose dad got screwed on a Grady deal. Did he kill Summer to get revenge?

As if that trio of potential murderers isn’t enough, the script by Singer, Benjamin Brewer , and Del Toro himself fills out a massive cast with the people in Tom’s orbit, including his wife Judy (an effective Alicia Silverstone ), who helps him work angles on the case in some of the film’s best scenes. She’s fearless and intellectually engaged in discussing the mystery. She knows and loves Captain Robert Allen ( Eric Bogosian ), Tom’s boss, who is introduced receiving an MS diagnosis. Yes, this is one of those scripts where everyone has an instantly identifiable trait that tries to take a traditional character just a bit left of center. It's all over-written, exaggerated stuff that only reminds you that you’re in a movie.

Of course, it’s perfectly fine to be aware of a writer's voice and director’s eye—no one would say someone like Fincher quietly observes—but the problems of “Reptile” comes down to style vs. vision. There’s plenty of style here, but it never feels like anything coheres into an actual vision. The great Mike Gioulakis (“ It Follows ,” “ Split ”) slides his camera through these imposing spaces, but to what end? Does it mean anything? The abundant style of “Reptile” is increasingly hollow as its overlong 134 minutes unfold. "Reptile" tries to hold onto too many things at once and lands none of them, leaving subplots unresolved and characters inconsistent.

And yet, there’s that performance in the center. Del Toro is so good here, capturing a man who has seen it all and just wants a peace that won’t come. He doesn’t overplay trauma or experience; he just allows those elements to influence his body language and the stares from those unforgettable eyes. It’s also a playful performance at times as Tom uses elements of his journey into real estate to influence his home remodel. There are some decent turns in the ensemble—Silverstone, Bogosian, Pitt—but Del Toro is on another level, existing in his own space. A space that belongs in a much better movie. 

This review was filed from the world premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. "Reptile" will be on Netflix on October 6 th .

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Film credits.

Reptile (2023)

136 minutes

Benicio Del Toro as Tom Nichols

Justin Timberlake as Will Grady

Alicia Silverstone as Judy Nichols

Michael Pitt as Eli Phillips

Karl Glusman as Sam Gifford

Eric Bogosian as Captain Robert Allen

Frances Fisher as Camille Grady

Domenick Lombardozzi as Wally

Owen Teague as Rudi Rackozy

Matilda Lutz as Summer Elswick

Victor Rasuk as Officer Peralta

Sky Ferreira as Renee

• Grant Singer

Writer (story by)

• Benjamin Brewer
• Benicio Del Toro

Cinematographer

• Mike Gioulakis
• Kevin Hickman
• Yair Elazar Glotman

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‘Reptile’ Review: Unusual Suspects

Benicio Del Toro plays a detective investigating a suburban homicide in this overstuffed thriller.

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By Natalia Winkelman

The tortuous crime thriller “Reptile,” streaming on Netflix , at times feels like the unwise attempt to cram an entire season of a cops-and-perps show into just over two hours. The movie, peopled with a near-bottomless supply of unsavory rogues, tracks the aftermath of a grisly murder by trailing the policemen on the case. Domenick Lombardozzi (of “The Wire”) is even featured among the crew — although his presence is merely another reminder of the sharper stories this movie aspires to replicate.

Set in an overcast marsh town in Maine, the movie opens on a couple facing friction: Will (Justin Timberlake), a real estate mogul, and Summer (Matilda Lutz), an agent at his company, converse tersely while readying a house for a showing. The sheeny manor is all stainless steel and vaulted ceilings, a home that, in its moneyed facade and alienating interior, offers an apt metaphor for the pair’s domestic strife.

Once Summer is found stabbed to death in a for-sale property, however, the movie shifts into procedural mode. We swivel to center on Tom (Benicio Del Toro), a detective who’s fresh meat on the local force; he and his wife, Judy (a convincing Alicia Silverstone), decamped to the hamlet following a scandal in Philadelphia. Working under the stony police captain (Eric Bogosian), Tom presents as a weary but devoted enforcer of law and order. “There’s only one thing I love almost as much as I love you,” he smolders, less to Judy than at her, “and that’s being a cop.”

Thank goodness for that fidelity, for this particular homicide soon proves a Pandora’s box of treachery and pretense. The poised Summer, during her short life in suburbia, managed to mingle with a legion of kooks and creeps, including her ex-husband, Sam (Karl Glusman), an artist fond of stealing human hair for his sculptures, and her glum confidante, Renee (Sky Ferreira), who seems to resent her pal’s success. That’s not to mention the bratty, well-to-do Will, whose resting pout face is only partially the fault of Timberlake’s restricted acting range.

In his first feature, the director Grant Singer (who wrote the screenplay with Benjamin Brewer and Del Toro) demonstrates a knack for building suspense. In one stylish sequence, Tom dials a mysterious number that could be the key to cracking the case. As he listens to the tone, Singer cuts to multiple characters reaching for ringing phones. The small scene oozes with Hitchcockian tension.

The trouble with “Reptile” is that this impressive moment-to-moment control does not extend to the contours of the broader story, which the writers overstuff with clumsy twists and contrived devices. Once the film gets around to revealing the culprit, we have already lost interest, enervated in the face of a movie that, like an overeager snake, bites off far more than it can swallow.

Reptile Rated R for coldblooded murder. Running time: 2 hours 14 minutes. Watch on Netflix.

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‘Reptile’ Review: Benicio del Toro in a Grisly Homicide Thriller Where Everyone’s a Suspect

Del Toro anchors a cop drama that keeps you watching, which doesn't always mean it's convincing.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

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I saw “ Reptile ,” the new Netflix homicide thriller, at home on a link and decided to watch it with subtitles, since this is the sort of moody cop noir about life in the shadows where there’s a lot of murmuring going on. And I didn’t want to miss a clue. This means, of course, that the subtitles will keep cueing you with descriptives like “sinister music” or “quiet ominous music,” and I couldn’t help but notice that this happened around 50 times. So much quietly sinister ominous music! That’s fair game for the genre, though it’s laid on a bit thick in “Reptile,” and that’s an emblem of the film’s aesthetic, which might be described as understated overstatement.

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It could also be one of the cops. The central figure, a veteran homicide detective named Tom Nichols, is played by Benicio del Toro , who wears a mustache, a crown of dark hair, and a spiffy leather jacket. Tom operates in his own leisurely zone of deduction and holds his hunches close to the vest, something that del Toro is an ace at. In “Reptile,” the actor speaks volumes just by raising his eyebrows or lowering his voice to a gruff monotone. At moments, we may wonder if he’s the killer (a gambit that’s been done a few times). For Tom has a shady past and a mysterious stab wound on his palm.

Yet as we observe his interaction with his wife, Judy ( Alicia Silverstone ), who is close enough to him to help him solve cases (Silverstone, in an excellent performance, makes her ingratiating yet tough enough not to flinch), we think: Nope. Then we notice how jealous Tom is of the contractor who’s renovating his kitchen and flirting with Judy; that seems like a red flag. Then Tom sets the guy straight, and we think: Aha, it’s just chivalry. Del Toro plays all of this with a seesaw cunning that keeps the audience agreeably off balance.    

Tom’s cop crew is another story. They’re a band of brothers the film portrays vividly, as an ideal of old-school camaraderie, though we start to see cracks in the armor when Wally (Domenick Lombardozzi), the one with the rough edges, talks about the security company he’s starting; he sounds a bit too profit-fixated. And what’s up with the chief of this squad? He’s played by Eric Bogosian as an aging geek who has the demeanor of an accountant and seems like he’s never not hiding something.

On the level of Saturday-night watchability, “Reptile” is a solid notch above “The Little Things,” the 2021 thriller in which Jared Leto played what looked and moved like a serial killer, though the film never quite let you nail that down. “Reptile” tugs you along with a competent and accessible intrigue. Yet as it comes to light that we’re dealing with a conspiracy, the movie seems to forget something: that the sheer gruesomeness of the murder suggested a berserk sadist at work, while the actual explanation for the crime suggests something wholly different. So which is it? “Reptile” comes on as “smart,” but the movie, for all its sinister-ominous-music atmosphere, is opportunistic enough — or maybe just enough of a consumer product — to swallow its own premise, if not its own tail.  

Reviewed online, Sept. 25, 2023. MPA Rating: R. Running time: 134 MIN.

• Production: A Netflix release of a Black Label Media production. Producers: Molly Smith, Trent Luckinbill, Thad Luckinbill. Executive producers: Benicio del Toro, Rick Yorn, Rachel Smith.
• Crew: Director: Grant Singer. Screenplay: Grant Swinger, Benjamin Brewer, Benicio del Toro. Camera: Mike Gioulakis. Editor: Kevin Hickman. Music: Yair Elazar Glotman, Arca.
• With: Benicio del Toro, Justin Timberlake, Alicia Silverstone, Eric Bogosian, Michael Carmen Pitt, Frances Fisher, Domenick Lombardozzi, Ato Essandoh, Karl Glusman, Matilda Lutz.

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• What Is Cinema?

Reptile Is an Elegant, If Undercooked, Throwback Thriller

By Richard Lawson

Early this year, a handsome, sleek, engaging thriller , Sharper , debuted to little fanfare. Which is a shame, because Sharper comes awfully close to recreating the artful mass-market genre movies that we were once so spoiled with. Perhaps Sharper has since found a life for itself on AppleTV+, but its theatrical run was brief and unremarkable. 

The new Netflix film Reptile, meanwhile, has been out in a very limited number of theaters since last Friday ahead of its debut on the streamer on September 29. I don’t think it has fared much better than Sharper, which is another shame: Reptile is also a good-looking, engaging B-movie made with uncommon intelligence. Music video director Grant Singer ’s feature debut is no perfect object, but it is decidedly, and often successfully, aspiring to be something more than just toss-off streaming content. 

Reptile is about the murder of a young, beautiful real estate agent, found stabbed to death in the bedroom of one of her listings. Her boyfriend Will, another realtor played with understated shiftiness by Justin Timberlake , is the prime suspect, but the lead investigator, Tom ( Benicio del Toro ), thinks the case is more than meets the eye. Tom has a shadowy past as a big-city detective; some long-ago sin has driven him into this relatively staid, suburban second act of his career. So he’s moody, and the suspect is moody, and the film is moody. Reptile has a sense of tone and texture, elevating its clichés into something of distinction. 

Singer—who has directed videos for Taylor Swift and Lorde , among others—stages Reptile with grand visual ambition. He and cinematographer Mike Gioulakis light the film with a chilly glow. The camera is constantly moving at a dreadful creep, panning across a nighttime house or pushing in on a character as they stand and consider something no doubt dark. Yair Elazar Glotman Arća ’s score groans and moans away ominously, lending this suburban murder mystery an eerie weight. 

Sure, it may all be a little Gone Girl , a little Prisoners . But thank god for a some style, for a modern Saturday-night entertainment that genuinely works to be worthy of one’s time and attention. The film’s script, by Singer, del Toro, and Benjamin Brewer , also reaches beyond its trappings; its dialogue is often sideways, strange. Reptile can be choppy, jumping from one slightly off-center scene to another, with seemingly little connective tissue binding them. That does at least urge the viewer to lean in, to listen more closely in order to suss out what, exactly, the film is doing. 

It turns out that, beneath all that aesthetic, Reptile is telling a pretty basic story of corruption and greed. That may come as a disappointment to those hoping that the film’s teasing, evocative presentation is leading somewhere more significant. Yet Reptile isn’t exactly unsatisfying. Its twists and red herrings may be fairly obvious, but its characters are idiosyncratic enough to keep motivation intriguingly murky. Del Toro, who is uniquely adept at a certain grizzled archness, does the most to shade his character. Is Tom a bad cop gone good? A bad one who’s stayed bad? Answers are elusive, but the likely answer is yes to both. 

Reptile has a wry approach to matters of economics as well. Will and his mother (played by an icy but underused Frances Fisher ) are pointed emblems of curdled wealth. And Tom’s obsession with nice kitchens (he and his wife are renovating theirs) pokes sly fun at the petty concerns of striving, bourgeois America. The film could probe more deeply into these matters—much as, well, Gone Girl did. But a sprinkling of class commentary is appreciated nonetheless; it is dismayingly refreshing to watch a contemporary mainstream movie that bothers with any kind of idea beyond its basic plot. 

Reptile also offers the surprising delight of seeing del Toro reunited with Alicia Silverstone , their first such pairing since the disastrous Excess Baggage in 1997. That movie is not one to be nostalgically revisited, but it is a pleasant nod to the past to have its stars back together again. Silverstone is a mild hoot as Tom’s shrewd wife, Judy, who is perhaps as good at investigation as any of Tom’s coworkers. Like the film’s politics, this dynamic could be fleshed out further, to give Silverstone more to do and to enhance the umami that Singer seems so determined to deliver. He gets more than halfway there in Reptile , an effort that merits a watch should anyone find it in the mixed-up files of Netflix.

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Review: ‘Reptile’ sheds the skins of too many other superior mystery movies

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Benicio Del Toro holds a movie frame like few in his profession. There’s an invitation to the viewer to take in all his facets — the piercing eyes from a cracked-pottery face, the hulking frame, the weary, coiled delivery — but in that allure lies a confidence that you won’t get everything, and that’s exciting too. He can ace the scene’s needs and convey there’s still more to discover, just you wait.

That’s the kind of actor you want in a crime story, or really any story that hinges on the tense and unresolved, on the things bad people want hidden. And “Reptile,” a studiously atmospheric, layer-peeling mystery from director and co-writer Grant Singer, foregrounds Del Toro — playing a calloused detective investigating a young woman’s murder — in a way that makes you want more of him. But also, regrettably, less of movies like “Reptile,” which tries to match its star’s unpredictable magnetism with a forced eeriness, only growing more ponderous and unfocused, like a case getting colder.

Before Del Toro’s lawman Tom Nichols enters the picture, we’re treated to a prologue of scenes (à la the elliptical openings of “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”) in which smarmy real estate agent Will Grady ( Justin Timberlake ) preps a house, gives a seminar and generally looks shady until, after getting called out to one of his for-sale properties, he happens upon the mutilated body of his colleague and girlfriend, Summer (Matilda Lutz).

As lead investigator, Tom, with loyal partner Dan (Ato Essandoh), chase down leads: a stringy-haired, malevolent figure roaming the periphery (Michael Carmen Pitt), the victim’s shifty ex (Karl Glusman), curious business dealings in the outfit Will runs with his mother (Frances Fisher). Though Tom can be eccentric on the job, he’s observant, rules-driven and upfront, and in his downtime — square dancing and poker nights — clearly cherishes the support of his smart, forthright wife ( Alicia Silverstone ) and her extended family, which includes colleagues on the force (Eric Bogosian, Domenick Lombardozzi).

That these worlds will eventually collide in deception, revelation and further violence is never in doubt, because Singer’s directorial agenda is to have us questioning the motives of everyone, everywhere, always, whether it helps the story along or not (or even make sense). While there’s nothing wrong with a pervasive mood of mistrust — it was a defining feature of the ’70s thriller’s heyday, from “The Conversation” to “The Parallax View” — it’s the sole note here, drifting in variations of unease that feel cribbed from other sources: One moment is Pakula-esque, another like something out of “Fargo,” the next recalling Fincher. Even the dissonant, things-aren’t-right score from Yair Elazar Glotman seems borrowed from a haunted-house movie.

The fallout from all this purposeful gloom isn’t merely that nothing surprises us; even Del Toro’s committed portrayal of a careful man’s gathering disillusionment gets jammed up. (Del Toro also has a screenwriting credit with Singer and Benjamin Brewer.) There’s collateral damage to Silverstone too, whose wonderfully spiky, sexy rapport with Del Toro — reunited after 25 years and “Excess Baggage” — often is treated as paranoia dressing, rather than the building blocks of a character. But at least Silverstone comes across as a figure we’re interested in getting to know. Timberlake, Lombardozzi and Bogosian barely register as anything but cogs in a plot.

That said, Singer’s indifference to coherence doesn’t entirely disabuse a viewer of staying the course. Even a rambling mystery with solid elements — like the proverbial broken clock — strikes the occasional note of worthy tension or insight. If “Reptile” were kicking off a brooding television procedural, you might even forgive its stilted apprehension and narrative malaise for the promise of more Del Toro: A pilot episode’s kinks can be worked out, but a star’s a star.

'Reptile'

Rating: R, for language, violence and some nude images Running time: 2 hours, 14 minutes Playing: Now streaming on Netflix

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'Reptile' Review: Benicio Del Toro Excels in Grant Singer's Gripping Directorial Debut | TIFF 2023

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This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn't exist. There are not many actors who are on the level of Benicio Del Toro . He’s an award winner, has starred in films across various genres, and is likely one of your dad’s favorite actors after he saw the Sicario films in between reruns of Yellowstone on the Paramount Network. All jokes aside, Del Toro is the real deal in the industry and has never once phoned in a performance. With Grant Singer ’s gripping debut film Reptile , he finds himself doing the kind of role that he does best, playing a morally ambiguous protagonist in a tense and often bleak world.

The film kicks off with real estate agent Will Grady ( Justin Timberlake ) coming home to find the mangled corpse of his girlfriend. Enter Tom Nichols (Del Toro), a police detective with a battered and sketchy past, who only loves two things in his life: his fierce wife Judy ( Alicia Silverstone ) and being a cop. Yes, this is something he literally says in the film almost word for word. His crew is quickly roped into the murder of Grady’s girlfriend and is almost immediately suspicious of the real estate agent and his fragile relationship with his late girlfriend. The further Tom gets into the investigation, the more he begins to lose trust in everyone around him as his past is continuously coming back to haunt him. If Reptile sounds like a familiar story to you, that’s because it is. It’s not aspiring to reinvent the crime thriller, and it really doesn’t need to.

'Reptile' Is a Familiar Story Told Well

Reptile is clearly inspired by films like Se7en , Zodiac , or really any David Fincher thriller you can think of. Much like Fincher, Singer comes from a music video background, and you can see his clear admiration for the acclaimed auteur in nearly every frame of the film. While this is a Netflix film, he gives the film a visual style that is extremely satisfying to watch on the big screen. It’s the mid-budget crime film that we don’t get nearly as much anymore and you can’t help becoming invested in the story.

Related: 'Reptile' Director Grant Singer on Landing a Superstar Cast for His Feature Debut [Exclusive]

Of course, with this kind of movie, one should expect a plethora of twists and turns and Reptile definitely delivers on that front. Some of the film’s plot beats go in fairly predictable directions, but it's also not without some memorable surprises. In particular, the film’s final showdown is worth noting as it is one of the most riveting sequences you’ll see all year. Reptile feels fully confident with itself without ever alienating the audience. It’s not pretentious and tells its mystery in a fairly straightforward way and never runs the risk of feeling overcrowded. Part of this could be credited to the nearly two-and-a-half-hour runtime, which does feels a bit unnecessary.

There are several scenes throughout the film that go on for just a minute too long and could have easily been cut without the film having to lose any steam. As amusing as it is to watch Del Toro curse real estate agents under his breath or research how to buy a new faucet online, and square-dancing with Silverstone, the scenes weren’t necessary. It is not that these scenes weren’t entertaining and they do bring a sense of levity to the film. But as the story chugs towards its conclusion, you do start to feel the length, especially with a rather abrupt ending.

Benicio Del Toro Gives His Best Performance Since 'Sicario'

One of the more interesting notes to make about Reptile is that it marks Del Toro’s screenwriting debut (he co-wrote the screenplay alongside Singer and Benjamin Brewer ). It makes perfect sense as the character of Tom Nichols plays to all of Del Toro’s greatest strengths as an actor, resulting in his most exciting and compelling performance since the first Sicario film. He obviously has the brooding and cunning nature of his character down to a T, but he also is incredibly proficient in delivering the film’s few moments of dark humor. This is the exact kind of role that Del Toro was put on this planet to fulfill.

Reptile also marks a reunion between Del Toro and Silverstone after starring together in Excess Baggage . Thankfully, this is a far more effective movie. Not only does Silverstone come dangerously close to outshining every other cast member, but she has such a believable and oddly charming chemistry with him. The characters that the two play aren’t really the common type of people that dominate much of modern Hollywood, but at the same time the film never demonizes them or makes them into unlikable people. You can’t help but root for them, especially as nearly every other character is hard to trust.

When it comes to Timberlake, that's another story as he has always been an unpredictable actor. Films like The Social Network and Friends with Benefits gave him roles that feel tailor-made for him, while other times you’ll get some subpar thriller where he feels wholly miscast like In Time or Runner Runner . It’s not that Timberlake feels miscast in his role, in actuality he suits this kind of character extremely well, but there is something that just feels somewhat wooden about his performance, especially in the film’s opening act. With that in mind, an argument can be made that his performance actually benefits his morally gray character.

Timberlake's acting aside, Reptile is the perfect kind of digestible, mid-budget crime thriller that we just don’t get enough of. At times, it reminded me of a much better version of the oft-forgotten Denzel Washington flick The Little Things . But where that film failed in creating an uncomfortable level of ambiguity, Reptile succeeds.

The Big Picture

• Reptile is a gripping crime thriller that draws inspiration from films like Se7en and Zodiac, making for a familiar story that is still told well.
• Benicio Del Toro shines in his role as the morally ambiguous protagonist, giving his best performance since Sicario.
• The film's visual style and unexpected twists make it a highly enjoyable and satisfying watch, despite some unnecessary scenes and a slightly long runtime.

Reptile premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. It opens in select theaters on September 29 before streaming on Netflix on October 6.

• Movie Reviews
• Reptile (2023)

‘Reptile’: Benicio Del Toro’s mesmerizing detective elevates a convoluted thriller

As netflix film tracks his investigation of a murder, it lingers on his relationships with his wife (alicia silverstone) and fellow cops..

World-weary detective Tom Nichols (Benicio Del Toro) looks into the murder of a young real estate agent in “Reptile.”

Filmmaking is such a collaborative process we hesitate to say any individual, even the lead, carries a movie, but that’s exactly what Benicio Del Toro does as a world-weary detective in the seedy and lurid cop-noir “Reptile”: He carries this sometimes convoluted and derivative thriller into three-star territory with an absolutely mesmerizing and authentic performance that conjures up memories of past anti-hero greats such as Bogart and Mitchum, Robert Ryan and Sterling Hayden. It’s authentic, grounded, stunning work.

Even when the material is the stuff of B-movie guilty pleasure.

Director Grant Singer (who co-wrote the script with Del Toro and Benjamin Brewer) makes the move from helming music videos for stars such as Ariana Grande, Skrillex, Lorde and Sam Smith to a feature-length debut that could have benefitted from tighter editing (the running time is 2 hours and 14 minutes). But he has a keen eye for this lurid material, bathing the visuals in ominous and unsettling autumnal tones while making smart choices, e.g., having two of the most violent moments in the film occur offscreen, making them perhaps more impactful and jarring than if they had transpired on camera.

“Reptile” opens with in affluent suburb of Scarborough, Maine, with the mood-setting sounds of an Edie Sands cover of Chip Taylor’s melancholy one-night-stand classic “Angel in the Morning” on the soundtrack, as a young real estate agent named Summer (Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz) and her boyfriend Will (Justin Timberlake), the heir to a local real estate empire, prep a spacious suburban home for a showing. Not long after, Will discovers Summer’s body in the master bedroom of that same house, stabbed more than 30 times, the knife plunged into her body with such vicious force that it remains jammed in her pelvis.

Enter police detective Tom Nichols (Del Toro), who will lead the investigation into this sensational murder with the help of his eager but green partner Dan (Ato Essandoh). The shifty and smarmy Will is an obvious suspect — he acknowledges his relationship with Summer had its ups and downs — but we’ve got a couple of other contenders as well. There’s Summer’s estranged husband Sam (Karl Glusman), a hollow-eyed creep who makes art incorporating human hair (we see security cam video of this guy surreptitiously snipping someone’s locks on a bus), as well as the disturbed and volatile Eli (Michael Carmen Pitt), who has carried a vendetta against Will’s family ever since they bought up Eli’s family’s farm when the family was financially vulnerable, which led to Eli’s father committing suicide. (Frances Fisher is exquisitely icy as Will’s controlling mother, who runs the real estate empire with ruthless efficiency and treats her jelly-spined, 40-ish son as if he’s 12.)

Poor Summer is nearly forgotten in the morgue as “Reptile” dwells on Tom’s life with his longtime and beloved wife, Judy (a terrific Alicia Silverstone), who has stuck by her husband through some trying times in Philadelphia, when Tom was nearly taken down along with his corrupt partner. (It’s unclear whether Tom DESERVED to go down.) The dynamic between Tom and Judy is warm and passionate, with just the lightest undercurrent of tension fueled by Tom’s jealousy. (He doesn’t trust that hunky contractor who’s renovating the kitchen.)

We also take in the “Copland” type vibe among Tom’s colleagues, including the police chief (Mike Pniewski), a real straight shooter; the captain (Eric Bogosian), a highly respected leader who is also Judy’s uncle, and the veteran cop Wally (Dominick Lombardozzi), who recently started a private security firm and is one of those loud-mouthed, “life of the party” tough guys who is always on the brink of taking the razzing a bit too far. Tom and Judy spend a lot of time with the group and their partners, but we get the feeling Tom still feels like an outsider.

“Reptile” is the kind of movie where the phone is always buzzing in the middle of the night or there’s someone pounding on the door late into the evening, and every time you’re driving on a winding road, the headlights behind you get uncomfortably close. Danger lurks, jump scares abound, and you don’t know who can be trusted. There’s a moment late in the game when Tom wonders if this is Philadelphia all over again, and he says to Judy, “There’s only one thing I love almost as much as I love you, and that’s being a cop, [but] you know what? This thing does not love me.” It’s a killer line, delivered by a world-class actor at the top of his game.

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Reptile Reviews

Hat tip to Del Toro and company. I like scripts that present a familiar formula in a mystery, and then proceed to have fun with the whodunit.

Full Review | Dec 3, 2023

The script suffers from having an excess of twists executed at a slow pace... [but] the cast never makes it boring. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Dec 1, 2023

Reptile lets all the drama happen off screen with a third act deus ex machina. What could have been a knotty, suburban, coastal noir boils down to a detective story we’ve all seen before.

Full Review | Nov 13, 2023

This is a dreary and somewhat tense crime drama that features a fascinating and compelling lead performance. Del Toro crushes it, but the mystery surrounding his character doesn’t quite come together as intended

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Nov 10, 2023

Excellent performances aren’t enough to salvage this labyrinthine slog saturated with equal parts premeditated diversion and gloomy atmosphere. Not even del Toro can make this work.

Full Review | Oct 26, 2023

Though the film’s plot, including its resolution, is routine, Del Toro and Silverstone keep things interesting. I’d love to see them return as these characters in a more compelling story.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 25, 2023

A pretty effective murder mystery... [Benicio Del Toro] has aged very nicely into this sort of role.

Full Review | Oct 21, 2023

Eventually, Reptile becomes tangled and leaves some of its subplots as loose ends, but Singer’s film is an impressively solid and slimy procedural.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 18, 2023

What begins as a taut crime story ends as anything but. In fact, the finale leaves a couple of questions unanswered.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Oct 13, 2023

Grant Singer puts in plenty of nice touches to stress a seedy environment, and del Toro gets a lot of lived-in aspects to his role to play with, but the film still can’t entirely shed the feel of being a “lesser than” attempt at a strong cinematic effort.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Oct 11, 2023

Reptile, whose name is never fully explained, packs quite a lot into the fast-moving story, though at over two hours, it could have been condensed more.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 11, 2023

It's too convoluted and it feels like a low-rent "True Detective". At the heart of it, it could have been fantastic, but the execution of this film was poorly done.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Oct 6, 2023

Reptile shines in various aspects, and its flaws can easily be overlooked. Watch it for Del Toro's compelling performance and Fincher's influence (particularly in the first half).

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 6, 2023

Some leaps of logic lessen a well acted, twisty thriller.

Sadly, you still need to stick the landing, and Reptile does a good job of drawing us into the mystery, it just rushes the ending and that feels like a crime.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 6, 2023

Gets points for holding your interest, but loses them for botching the close...it twists itself into such pretzel formations in an attempt to surprise that by the end the ludicrousness has overwhelmed the mood it worked so hard to establish.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Oct 5, 2023

Benicio Del Toro makes this whole thing work. If it were an hour and a half, it'd be a 4-star. At it's current unwieldy length, it's a 3-star. Still a good watch.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 5, 2023

"Reptile" isn't a terrible film. There will be a specific crowd that enjoys it. There are just better offerings out there.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Oct 4, 2023

A very absorbing whodunnit procedural assembled with cooly unnerving aplomb, like a David Fincher thriller.

Full Review | Oct 3, 2023

Frustratingly, the underlying themes aren't robust enough to make this vastly overlong film very memorable, rehashing the usual exhausted good cop scenario. It's beautifully shot and acted, but a bit more earthy momentum would have given it a real kick.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 3, 2023

Reptile (2023)

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Tom Nichols (Del Toro), a detective who moves from Philly to a small town to take a detective job after his wife, Judy (Silverstone), and her ailing uncle arranges for Tom to take the position. Immediately, he is assigned to investigate the brutal murder of real estate agent Summer (Lutz). Right away things get complicated as it is discovered that former boyfriend Will Grady (Timberlake) found her body in a foreclosed home they aimed to put on the market. Assisting in the investigation is Nichols’ partner, Detective Dan Cleary (Essandoh), who may be hiding more than he lets on. 

Eli Phillips (Pitt), is an initial suspect; he has an ax to grind with the real estate community as his family is displaced. His ability to pop up in places he shouldn’t be, and look as greasy and creepy as possible, lends to his character being a fantastic red herring. There’s also Summer’s ex-husband (Karl Glusman), whose dead-behind-the-eyes shtick seemingly leads to probable cause as well. With further investigation, Tom finds that the rabbit hole runs deep, and there are more factors at play than just a murder: he doesn’t face just one person, but an entire system of corruption.

Singer showcases commendable directorial prowess, navigating the script with Del Toro’s captivating charisma as his compass. Yet, the film falls short of making a memorable mark on the viewer. It needs cohesive and engaging storylines and a more dynamically harmonious cast — areas where the likes of Justin Timberlake and Pitt seem to struggle.

The film’s potential could arguably be unearthed through a more refined cut, trimming its extended run to focus on the most exciting elements of the narrative. Reptile ’s familiar echoes still holds the possibility of resonating if executed with a sense of balance. It teeters on the brink of becoming filler in the expansive cinematic domain, waiting for the next blockbuster titan to fling it into obscurity. This highlights the quest for refined storytelling against the backdrop of ambitious aspirations that won’t leave audiences pondering its obscured potential.

Title:  Reptile Distributor: Netflix Release date: September 29, 2023 Director : Grant Singer Screenwriters:  Grant Singer, Benjamin Brewer, and Benicio Del Toro Cast : Benicio Del Toro, Alicia Silverstone, Michael Pitt, Ato Essandoh, Justin Timberlake, Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz, Eric Bogosian, Domenick Lombardozzi Running time:  2 hr 14 min

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Reptile Review

06 Oct 2023

Reptile opens with seemingly idyllic imagery of the American middle and upper classes: large white houses standing as symbols of desirable affluence. It’s imagery that is, of course, soon to be undermined by the dark detective drama that follows, if not the murder of an estate agent that ignites it. Investigating the crime is Tom Nichols (Benicio Del Toro), who as far as movie cops go, seems like a relatively well-adjusted one. He lives in a nice house that he’s remodelling (and obsessing over what new taps he’s going to buy). His relationship with his wife Judy (Alicia Silverstone) and his coworkers is, by all appearances, solid. That’s all set to change when Tom’s investigation turns up unpleasant truths nestled close to home.

Grant Singer’s debut feature (co-written by Del Toro and Benjamin Brewer) never feels like it fully capitalises on this suburban nightmare, despite handsome visuals courtesy of cinematographer Mike Gioulakis, whose work on Us and It Follows helped foster a sense of dread. Reptile tries to build a similarly haunting mood as Gioulakis’ camera prowls around. But those pretty textures only go so far, and the imagery and acting is left to prop up uninspiring scripting, which aims for (and misses) Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners , or David Fincher’s flinty cop stories.

Reptile often tips into parody rather than meaningful pastiche.

As a result, Reptile often tips into parody rather than meaningful pastiche. This feels especially true when overwrought score-cues underline characters’ thoughts in laughable fashion, or when Justin Timberlake unconvincingly raises his voice at some weirdos who fetishise the crime scene where his girlfriend was murdered. There are some moments that are intentionally silly — like tense strings playing into a scene that transitions to Detective Nichols admiring pictures of kitchen taps on his work computer — but such moments feel few and far between.

Del Toro is still a formidable screen presence, though everything around him is so stale that it makes little difference, no matter how much the actor teases out more twisted depths in his character or environment. What is there is stretched thin over a mind-numbing two-and-a-quarter hour runtime, with little to show for it.

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Movies | 21 08 2023

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Grisly violence, language in dark detective mystery.

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Most, but not all, bad deeds get punished. Crime d

Everyone in the film seems to have layers to them.

The film's lead actor is Puerto Rican-born, but th

A woman is found murdered at a grisly crime scene.

Couples kiss. A man talks about "fooling around,"

"F--k," "s--t," "bulls--t," "ass," "hell," "goddam

Car brands form part of the investigation. An HP l

There is reference to dealing "heroin and coke," a

Parents need to know that murder mystery Reptile contains graphic descriptions of violence, some explicitly violent scenes, and plenty of swearing. A woman is found murdered at a grisly crime scene, and the brutality of her murder is described in detail. People are shot and killed on and off-screen. A tooth…

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Parents need to know that murder mystery Reptile contains graphic descriptions of violence, some explicitly violent scenes, and plenty of swearing. A woman is found murdered at a grisly crime scene, and the brutality of her murder is described in detail. People are shot and killed on and off-screen. A tooth impression is taken from a dead body. There's discussion of rape, bite marks and wounds, references to suicide, being "abused, harassed, and tortured," using human hair to make art, stats on female homicide, serial killers, car crashes, dreams about being shot. Sexual content is mostly limited to some mild kissing and jokes and references about cheating, fooling around, sex workers, and sperm tests. A nude blow-up doll is tossed around as a joke. Men make sexist comments and a homophobic joke. Adults drink regularly. Heroin dealers are caught. Language includes "f--k," "s--t," "bulls--t," "ass," "hell," "goddamn," "bitch," "piss," and "t-ts." To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Based on 2 parent reviews

This movie also uses the Lord and Savior JESUS CHRIST name in vain multiple times. Philippians 2:10-11 New King James Version 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

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Movie Details

• On DVD or streaming : September 29, 2023
• Cast : Benicio Del Toro , Alicia Silverstone , Justin Timberlake
• Director : Grant Singer
• Inclusion Information : Latino actors, Female actors, Latino writers
• Studio : Netflix
• Genre : Thriller
• Run time : 135 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : language, violence and some nude images
• Last updated : November 18, 2023

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‘reptile’ filmmaker grant singer breaks down the ending of his netflix chart-topper.

In an age in which audiences are used to predicting twists, Singer aimed to mislead: "It's almost like you're playing poker with very smart people who can read your hand."

By Brian Davids

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[This story contains spoilers for Reptile .]

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Riz ahmed joins wes anderson's latest film (exclusive), 'reptile' producers black label media talk their third benicio del toro film and say 'sicario 3' is "very close".

At a time when crime dramas and murder mysteries are still immensely popular, especially on Netflix, Singer, along with his co-writers Benjamin Brewer and Del Toro himself, knew that they had to work overtime to keep viewers on their toes.

“Audiences now are very advanced in their understanding of these stories because there have been so many great crime thrillers and mysteries in this genre,” Singer tells The Hollywood Reporter . “It’s almost like you’re playing poker with very smart people who can read your hand. So we tried to create a more complicated portrait of this relationship and also of these people.” 

Below, during a recent conversation with THR , Singer discusses the Excess Baggage (1997) reunion between Del Toro and Alicia Silverstone, before addressing spoilers for the ending.

To start with your prior work in music videos, was there a particular video where you knew you were then ready to make the leap to features? 

I don’t know if there was one in particular, but there was a series of stuff, like The Weeknd’s “The Hills” and “Can’t Feel My Face.” That year [2015], I also did a Skrillex video with Anya Taylor-Joy. Doing these ambitious music videos felt like I was building to something. I felt like I was getting enough experience under my belt that, perhaps, with the right opportunity, I could take this leap and dip my toes into making movies.

First and foremost, I’m one of the biggest David Fincher fans on the planet. He’s probably the greatest living technician of cinema, so I would never even put my name or this movie in the same sentence as David Fincher. He’s in a completely different league. He’s one of the few filmmakers of the moment who makes original crime thrillers, so people always associate him with the aura of these movies. But I never intended for this movie to even exist in whatever it is that he’s doing. I just wanted to make a crime thriller that evoked a very specific feeling, a feeling of being deceived, where there was a multifaceted deception, both in the story’s construction and also in the experiences of the characters. 

But in terms of making the leap from music videos to movies, there have been so many great ones like Spike Jonze and Mark Romanek, but David Fincher is obviously the top of that hill. That generation of directors paved the way for my generation and showed that there was a path forward. You could start by making these cool music videos with your friends, and then ultimately attempt to achieve your dreams by making movies. They paved the way. 

We met and he wanted to engage in the movie, and at that point, he wasn’t even officially attached. He was like, “I’m interested.” So we started meeting and talking about the movie to see if he would eventually be willing to star in it. Along with [co-writer] Ben [Brewer], the three of us then started working on the script and coming up with different ideas. So the story began to evolve, and we started deepening Benicio’s character, as well as the other characters. It was a very rewarding, insightful, inspiring collaboration, and it just naturally progressed to where he was writing the script with us.

Could you tell that he was very particular about his dialogue? 

Honestly, I was never conscious of Benicio being particular about the dialogue. It was more that the three of us would bounce different ideas off each other, and it was a very collaborative, amazing process. It’s hard to articulate, but I wouldn’t say he was particular to dialogue or particular to a specific element of the storytelling. The whole experience was very all-encompassing. 

I once heard Quentin Tarantino say that Sam Jackson is the best special effect you can have. Does the Benicio closeup belong in the same sentence?

So, what I do to counterbalance that is I shoot a lot of closeups, and I shoot a lot of what I like to call “within the scene,” where you’re physically present within a moment. There’s an invisibility to the lensing, and closeups really help that. Obviously, [John] Cassavetes is the king of that, where you’re right there with the character. And Benicio is so wonderful, non-verbally. He expresses and emotes so many complicated things without even speaking, and throughout the filmmaking process, I began to realize that these closeups could tell the story in many ways without having to use dialogue.

What’s Benicio’s best take, usually?

No one’s ever asked me this, but we didn’t do too many takes. I’d say we probably did no more than seven takes, ever. It’s been a minute since we’ve gone through the takes, but they’re all great in different ways. Honestly, I can’t give you an exact number, because when we’re going through the footage, I’m not looking at the take numbers. And being in the moment and being present, I’m actually not always watching the monitor. I’m sometimes just watching the scene play out and not even really looking at what the camera is doing. I’m just focused on how the scene feels. Once I get back to the edit and I’m looking at the performances, I’m like, “Wow, I didn’t even see that actor do that in the moment.” These things are almost imperceptible live, but then you can see them back in the editing bay.

( Laughs .)

So whose idea was it to reteam the stars of 1997’s Excess Baggage ?

That was Benicio’s idea. When we were discussing what actor might be great for the role of [Tom’s wife] Judy, I’ll never forget when I was sitting across from him and he mentioned her name. I thought, “Oh wow, that’s a brilliant idea. I love Alicia Silverstone.” I hadn’t seen her in a role like this in a long time, and she brings not only this really nice vulnerability, but also this weight and strength. She added a complicated emotionality to their characters’ domestic life that’s a really nice counterpoint to the evils that Benicio’s character faces in his work life. So it was Benicio’s idea, and once we met with her, it just became very apparent that she was the perfect person to play this character.

This is not just a Sicario reunion between Benicio and Black Label; there’s also a Brolin in the film and she serves the movie quite well. Who suggested Kathryn Boyd Brolin for that part?

I saw her audition through casting, and I didn’t know there was any connection to Josh or anyone. I saw the audition, and I was like, “Let’s cast Kathryn.” And I only found out after we cast her that she was married to Josh. So I didn’t know at the time, but she was amazing and just so great to work with.

I had worked with him on a music project nine months prior to filming this movie, so we sent the script to him. We had this shorthand from working on this music project together, and we really got along well. So I instantly knew that he was not only great for the role, but he would probably also be a collaborator for many years to come. We just had that spark. So he really loved the script, and he was very interested in my vision for the movie and the complicated aspects of playing a character who’s both withholding and grieving at the same time. We both felt that he hadn’t played a role quite like this, and once Benicio became involved, the stars really aligned.

I’m quite fond of the transition from Tom’s (Del Toro) “interesting, huh?” to him walking down the hallway with that haunting cue on top of it.

I love that therapist sequence, too. It’s a little bit more poetic in terms of the way it’s structured, and it was one of the first things we cut when I got back to L.A. with my editor Kevin Hickman. We wanted to start with that because it’s a little bit more musical and lyrical in the way that it’s structured, and it provided us a nice boundary as to what the shape of the film is and how far we could take it in an unconventional way.

[The rest of the interview contains spoilers for Reptile .]

You are completely on track. In the dream he’s talking about, he says that he’s at a party and then these bad guys come in. Well, at the end of the movie, it’s the day after Captain Allen’s [Eric Bogosian] birthday party and there’s remnants of the party everywhere, and you realize, “Oh my God, this is a recreation of the dream.” The movie deals with things that are cyclical. It deals with these acts of God, which happens with the Frisbee, but it’s also this idea of premonition. The past is coming to haunt you. So this is both the retelling of the dream and his past in Philadelphia all over again.

The movie is really the tale of two halves. The first half presents itself as an investigative thriller, and then halfway through the film, it becomes this character piece with the unraveling of Tom’s conscience and this morality decision that he has to make. And then you wonder, “Okay, is he going to do the right thing or not? Is he going to act on it? What is this character going to do?” And in that last act, there’s a lot of tension and suspense, and we needed a real climax. With a movie that’s very suggestive of violence and a lot of it is off screen, we needed to really build to a climactic explosion, if you will, where you let that steam loose and also see if our character was going to do the right thing or not.

Yes, yes! And Alicia Silverstone’s character responds, “You don’t have to wash yours.” In the beginning of the movie, we witness this character lying dead in a room, and then the next person you see is Benicio’s character with a cut on his hand. And you think, “Is this person the killer? Is this someone I can trust?” We’re constantly trying to make the viewer question the intentions of these people and who the potential killer can be or who these people are in terms of how they relate to the plot. And when Tom is asked what happened to his hand, he says, “Kitchen accident,” so it all goes back to the kitchen. And the kitchen is really this idea that the people who are tasked with solving these crimes are just like the two of us. They have the same weaknesses and desires, but they also like nice things. We’ve all seen the detective who’s just obsessed with the case, and they can’t eat or sleep. Their relationship with their loved one also suffers, so we took the opposite approach. Tom is a guy who’s solving the case, but he’s also remodeling his kitchen. There’s a moment where he has this look on his face, and you think he’s looking at gruesome pictures of the dead body, but he’s actually looking at the kitchen faucet he just saw [in Will Grady’s house]. And it’s funny because it’s relatable. 

Besides the touchless faucet, Benicio’s character also falls in love with this white Chevy Silverado, and then his slow-moving contractor (Thad Luckinbill) ends up buying it. 

Dude, you got the fucking movie. I love it. You’ve gotten it more than most. Not everyone picks up on these things. 

Well, Tom then proceeds to accuse his contractor of having an affair with his wife. Do you think there was actual infidelity, or is Tom just taking his various frustrations out on an easy target?

In my opinion, Tom is projecting his frustration. He’s learning all these fucked up things about his department and this case, and he’s displacing that frustration onto an innocent bystander. No, Peter, the contractor, in my opinion, is not having an affair with Alicia’s character. It’s just a way for Tom to let loose of some of the things that he’s keeping to himself. What I love about that scene is the fact that he does not let his wife know one bit of what he’s feeling. He’s like, “Everything’s good. Let’s go dance.” And then unbeknownst to her, he just had this explosive exchange with the contractor. 

Before Summer (Matilda Lutz) was killed, I first became suspicious of Timberlake’s character when he got mad at her for not showing up to his event and then he voluntarily slept on the couch. Normally, that’s a punishment that the upset spouse hands out. Did you want us to question that odd form of self-punishment?

Hey, what happened with Owen Teague and his character? Did the edit just not go his way?

He’s in the movie briefly …

The funeral scene …

Yeah, and that scene when he comes out of the car. As you’re making a movie, you realize, “Oh wait, we need to go here instead of here because this character would do this, actually.” So there were certain sequences that we decided to move in new directions, but Owen Teague is phenomenal. His stuff was absolutely incredible. He’s truly one of the most amazing actors I’ve ever worked with. Benicio loves him, too, and speaks highly of him. But yeah, there are a couple of scenes where we decided to go in new directions.

Tom basically says that he loves the job, but the job hasn’t loved him back. Do you expect him to press forward as a cop after this?

I would like to leave that a little bit open-ended. Between what we show in that kitchen scene when he’s doing paraffin and his hand is healing and he’s shedding his new skin [like a reptile] — and also the [Bob] Dylan song [“Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”] that says, “Mama, take this badge off me, I can’t use it anymore,” hopefully, through the feeling of those scenes and the performances of the actors and what the music and the lyrics are saying, the viewer can come to their own conclusion.

*** Reptile is now streaming on Netflix. This interview was edited for length and clarity .

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Summary Following the brutal murder of a young real estate agent, a hardened detective attempts to uncover the truth in a case where nothing is as it seems, and by doing so dismantles the illusions in his own life.

Directed By : Grant Singer

Written By : Grant Singer, Benjamin Brewer, Benicio Del Toro

Where to Watch

Benicio Del Toro

Tom nichols, justin timberlake, eric bogosian, captain robert allen, alicia silverstone, judy nichols, domenick lombardozzi, frances fisher, camille grady, ato essandoh, michael pitt, eli phillips, karl glusman, sam gifford, mike pniewski, chief marty graeber, matilda anna ingrid lutz, summer elswick, catherine dyer, deena allen, thad luckinbill, michael beasley, sky ferreira, james devoti, bennett rossoff, amy parrish, valerie mark, elizabeth houston, jesse c. boyd, critic reviews.

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• DVD & Streaming
• Crime , Drama , Mystery/Suspense

Content Caution

In Theaters

• Benicio Del Toro as Tom Nichols; Justin Timberlake as Will Grady; Eric Bogosian as Captain Robert Allen; Alicia Silverstone as Judy Nichols; Domenick Lombardozzi as Wally; Frances Fisher as Camille Grady; Ato Essandoh as Dan Cleary; Michael Pitt as Eli Phillips; Karl Glusman as Sam Gifford; Mike Pniewski as Chief Marty Graeber; Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz as Summer Elswick; Catherine Dyer as Deena Allen; Thad Luckinbill as Peter; Michael Beasley as Victor; JC Capone as Paul; Sky Ferreira as Renee

Home Release Date

• September 29, 2023
• Grant Singer

Distributor

Movie review.

There’s never been a killing like this. And officer Tom Nichols is not quite sure where to start.

It’s not that there aren’t any leads for the Scarborough killing of realtor Summer Elswick; there are just too many.

Let’s start with the boyfriend, Will Grady. He was the first person to come across the body—and the guy who just so happened to have had an argument with Summer the night before.

Then there’s the ex-husband, Sam Gifford. He steals the hair of women for his art projects and might not be quite as over Summer as he appears to be.

Finally, there’s Eli Phillips, a man whose life was destroyed by the Grady family (with whom Summer is closely connected) who wants to get his revenge on them through any means necessary.

It’s enough to make any detective paranoid, and Tom is no exception. But he’s got a reason to be paranoid: Because as this murder mystery starts to unravel, so too will Tom’s whole worldview.

Positive Elements

Despite growing pressure and increasing threats, Tom remains steadfast in pursuing justice for the murdered Summer. Even as his world falls apart, and even when he has a chance to back away from it all, Tom refuses to quit until the case is closed. Tom’s wife, Judy, remains committed to helping him solve the case, too.

Additionally, Tom is a humble man. At one point, he’s told that he will be awarded the Medal of Valor for his part in stopping a criminal. But he says that he doesn’t want it, since he doesn’t want a medal for ending a man’s life.

Spiritual Elements

We’re told someone is at church. A man is called “the devil.” Someone references horoscopes.

Sexual Content

We see a woman in her underwear, and we see a couple of women in one-piece swimsuits. A man kisses a woman’s neck from behind, hoping that she’ll say yes to having sex. A guy smacks a woman on the rear. We hear a reference to an orgasm.

We’re told that traces of semen have been found in a female corpse (though we’re later informed that it was from a consensual encounter). A couple of affairs that have been taking place come to light. Tom suspects a man has been having an affair with his wife and threatens the man. Several women wear clothing that exposes cleavage.

A man tries to convince Tom to pick a woman to have sex with, but Tom tells the man that he’s married. A married couple discusses how each of them lost their virginity before they met. Someone gives a naked blow-up sex doll to another person for his birthday.

A man and woman kiss. A man talks about getting his sperm tested for fertility reasons. A painting of an angel shows of the woman’s breasts. Someone says that she likes all things French, including “French kissing.”

Violent Content

Several men get shot and killed, each death complete with its own graphic splatter of blood. One man bleeds out, and another victim is shot and apparently survives. Still another victim (of sorts) is shot and killed in a dream sequence.

We also see the blood-covered body of someone who was stabbed more than 30 times. There’s news about a man who committed suicide. We hear the raspy breathing of someone as they die.

We hear a reference to rape (in the context of an inappropriate joke). As that conversion grows to its punchline, a gay man in the joke protests, saying “I think Mr. James knows how to rob a train.”

Tom recovers from a bloody wound on his hand.

Crude or Profane Language

The f-word is used nearly 40 times, and the s-word is used about 15 times. We also hear “a–,” “b–ch,” “d–n,” “h—,” “p-ss” and “t-ts.” God’s name is used in vain three times, including one instance that’s followed by “d–n.” Jesus’ name is used in vain six times.

Drug and Alcohol Content

The police confiscate 13 kilograms of heroin from a man, and we later see them grab a bunch more from another bust. A man is said to sell heroin and cocaine, and another guy uses those drugs. A drawer is filled with (what appears to be) marijuana. People smoke and drink alcohol.

Other Negative Elements

Men place bets on the results of a medical test. Two people tour a home to take photos of where the woman died. A man cuts off some of a woman’s hair to steal it.

Most of the characters in Reptile have something hidden in their shells. But cracking those shells open inevitably results in some carnage.

The film takes inspiration from the real-life slaying of Canadian real estate agent Lindsay Buziak; accordingly, we witness dramatized elements from that horrific act on the fictional screen. Characters die in bloody acts of violence. But even apart from that, we’ll also deal with a plot that’s centered on drug dealing, some sexual quips and a lot of heavy swearing.

This murder mystery successfully pulls off some tense scenes while fumbling others. Reptile’ s use of dramatic music felt a bit overdone at times, especially when many of these scenes built to nothing. Perhaps it was a decision made to make the viewer feel the tense paranoia that Tom feels throughout the film, but I ended up just being annoyed by it.

Reptile might eventually shed its scaly layers of mystery by the end of its over two-hour run, but that won’t happen before you’re struck by its venomous, content-filled bite.

Kennedy Unthank

Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”

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‘Reptile’ Ending Explained: Benecio del Toro’s Whodunit Netflix Movie Is Confusing AF

Reptile on Netflix is a new crime thriller whodunit that really makes you pay attention in order to figure out who, in fact, done it.

Directed by Grant Singer, with a screenplay co-written by Grant, Benjamin Brewer, and Benicio del Toro, Reptile began streaming on Netflix today, after premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this month. It stars del Toro as a police detective tasked with solving the murder of a young, beautiful real estate agent. But he quickly—well, not quickly, considering the movie is 2 hours and 14 minutes long—realizes this murder is part of a much larger conspiracy plot.

Also starring Justin Timberlake, Alicia Silverstone, Eric Bogosian, Ato Essandoh, Domenick Lombardozzi, and Michael Pitt, Reptile is a movie full of great performances and a sadly overloaded, confusing plot. There are plenty of red herring scenes that seem important, but then are not, and plenty of seemingly unimportant scenes that in fact, are crucial to understanding what the hell is going on.

If you didn’t catch everything, no need to fret, because Decider is here to help. Read on for the Reptile plot summary and the Reptile ending, explained.

Reptile movie plot summary:

Will Grady (Justin Timberlake) and his girlfriend Summer (Matilda Lutz) are realtors, who are clearly up to something shady. Also, their relationship is on the fritz. One day, Will finds Summer’s dead body in one of the empty houses they were trying to sell. She’s been stabbed to death.

Enter Detective Tom Nichols (Benicio del Toro), who is assigned to investigate the case with his partner, Detective Dan Clearly (Ato Essandoh). Tom is a good cop and well-liked in the department. Tom is married to a woman named Judy (Alicia Silverstone). Judy’s uncle Allen (Eric Bogosian), is the police captain and Tom’s boss. Tom, Allen, and another police buddy named Wally (Domenick Lombardozzi) are all close friends.

• benecio del toro

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The list of suspects for Summer’s murder includes: Will, the boyfriend; Summer’s ex-husband Sam Gifford (Karl Glusman); and Eli Phillips (Michael Pitt), a man who was screwed over by Will’s family realty company. At first, most of the evidence points to Sam Gifford, the ex-husband. Tom and Dan pay a visit to interrogate Sam, but then Sam pulls a gun on the cops and tries to run. In the shoot-out that follows, Tom kills Sam.

It turns out that Sam had a lot of drugs on him, which is why he tried to run. Tom watches one of the cops wrap up the drugs in blue snowman duct tape. The other cops and the media seem to accept the story that Sam was Summer’s killer, even though he never confessed. Tom thinks something doesn’t add up. To the bemusement of his boss Allen, Tom insists on taking a teeth mold of Sam’s corpse, to see if the bite marks match the bite marks on the victim.

Now let’s skip over a bunch of red herrings and confusing, non-relevant information. Sometime later, Tom sees a news report about a drug bust and notices that the drugs featured in the newsreel have that same snowman duct tape. The implication here is that the police planted the drugs to bust some poor kid. Who is that poor kid? His name is Rudy Rackozy (Owen Teague). Eli Phillips—that guy who was wronged by the Grady family—realizes that the Rudy kid busted for drugs also worked for the Gradys at one point. (He realizes this by looking at a poster, so it’s easy to miss.) Could it be that the Grady family is taking out anyone who might squeal?

That’s definitely what Eli thinks. Eli breaks into Tom’s house to tell him that he thinks the Gradys are crooks. Eli says that Summer was being ripped off by a company called White Fish, and he says the Gradys are laundering drug money through their phony real estate business. That’s why Summer never made any commissions on her sales. Eli leaves behind a thumb drive full of proof. Tom goes through the files on the thumb drive, which do seem to prove that the Grady’s were laundering drug money (aka, pretending they made their money from real estate via a sham operation, when they were actually making money from drugs) through a few different phony companies.

Tom all that confirms that the same drugs found on Sam Gifford were used to frame Rudy Rackozy. Hmm, this smells a lot like dirty cops. Will pays a visit to Eli, to demand back the thumb drive that Eli stole. We now have confirmation that Will is definitely a bad guy. But wait, someone else shows up to help threaten Eli! We don’t yet see who it is.

Reptile movie ending explained:

Cut back to Tom, who is now suspicious of everyone around him. While attending a party at his boss Allen’s house, Tom finds the exact car that was at the scene of the crime when Summer was killed, which police have been looking for. It’s even missing the hub cap. That’s pretty darn suspicious. Allen urges Tom to let it go, and promises he will explain everything, if Tom comes by the next morning.

Instead, Tom takes the thumb drive with evidence to the chief of police, played by Mike Pniewski. Tom is a good cop, and he’s determined to do the right thing. Tom and the chief pay Allen a visit the next morning, “to talk.” While the chief is using the bathroom, Allen tells Tom to run. “You gave them the drive! They know everything!” Allen says. Huh? Them?

BANG! Then the police chief shoots and kills Allen. Whoa! This conspiracy goes all the way to the chief of police! It was likely the chief who showed up to threaten Eli in that earlier scene.

After a struggle—in which Tom injures his hand—Tom kills the police chief. His final opponent? Wally, his old buddy from the police station. Tom shoots Wally but doesn’t kill him. Wally tells Tom to finish the job, but instead, Tom calls 911. Still playing by the book!

In the final sequence of the film, we see Will getting arrested by the FBI, and we see Judy helping Tom heal his injured hand. This is a call-back to the beginning of the film, where Tom said he cut his hand in a kitchen injury. At the time, it seemed suspicious—like maybe he fought with his wife—but now it seems that, along with a dozen other beats in this movie, was a red herring. The only person Tom is able to trust in the end is Judy, and she is the one who helps him to heal. Phew! Did you get all that?

Who is the killer in Reptile on Netflix?

Will Grady, aka Justin Timberlake. (Not to brag, but I totally called that when the trailer dropped . It’s always the boyfriend.) But the way this is revealed is via a fairly confusing flashback. Tom is chasing down yet another lead, trying to figure out who Rudy Rackozy called 17 times on the day Summer died. Although it’s not said out loud, we are meant to realize that it was Will that Rudy called. Then, in a brief flashback, we see Will standing over Summer’s body as she dies. It’s way too subtle, especially given that later there is a dream sequence involving Will that turns out not to be real. This is super confusing!

But, I do believe that we’re meant to infer from the flashback scene that Will killed Summer. Summer, we learn, was about to go to the FBI and blew the lid on the whole drug laundering operation. So, Will killed her, and the police tried to pin it on the ex-husband, by planting evidence at the murder scene. But they weren’t counting on Tom being such a good cop.

Again: It’s always the boyfriend.

• Ending Explained
• Reptile (2023)

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