8 Amazing Movies That Only Feature One Actor
2. Locke
When you think of an entertaining road trip movie, spending an hour and a half with a distraught Tom Hardy trying like hell to get to the hospital in time for reasons that are not immediately made clear doesn't exactly scream "feel good hit of the summer!" But hot damn is it an engrossing piece of cinematic voyeurism.
Because the fraught car ride happens in real time, with Hardy even reacting to real, live phone calls being piped into the car - his only source of contact with the other names in the movie's credits - we feel his immediate anxiety, but also the residual lingering in all of the moments that come after it.
Most man versus the clock stories give the viewer an out, cutting away to another location or subplot so that they can take a tiny breather from the tension, but Locke plants its feet early on and refuses to show its hand for the duration of its 85-minute runtime.
It's a bold move, but one that pays off thanks to some cunning cinematography, a coyly escalating storyline, and some wonderfully understated readings from Hardy.