Bruce Sweeney (Crimes of Mike Recket, The Dick Knost Show) returns to the big screen (since 2018’s Kingsway) with She Talks to Strangers, a brazenly funny black comedy that gives the Canadian filmmaker a turn to mine for gold in the trends of compulsive true crime followings. The backbone of Sweeney’s Toronto-set thriller, however, is the condensed, character-driven story of clumsy curmudgeons picking feuds with each other to gain a sense of control.

Leslie (Camille Sullivan, of the upcoming horror Shelby Oaks) is loyal to her dog, and nobody else. She’s been burned by her ex Keith (Jeff Gladstone), who leaves Leslie out to dry when he’s finished taking advantage of her, and the pessimism from her mother Staci (Sweeney regular Gabrielle Rose) frustrates Leslie and often leaves her feeling hopeless. Surly, but hopeless. But Staci, in fact, feels used by Leslie considering she’s only called upon when her daughter needs a dogsitter. When Keith slithers his way back into Leslie’s life, a power struggle picks up where the couple left off until the rivalry explodes and Staci, an avid true crime junkie, steps up as “the fixer”.

She Talks to Strangers walks a thin line between empathizing with its characters and laughing at their chaos; creating sardonically tense scenes as the actors channel Sweeney’s unfiltered characters and his – often hilarious – scathing dialogue. This is the type of film where rash reactions challenge the logic of its story until the audience is reminded of how desperate and petty these people are.

After the success of the award-winning show Only Murders in the Building and the unstoppable slew of streamable documentaries about DIY detectives, it would seem as though true crime obsessions are old hat. But Bruce Sweeney, an actor’s director, knows exactly how to work with his cast to issue a new perspective on popular interests and genres; resulting in a movie that toggles between laughs and gasps without running itself ragged.

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Addison Wylie: @AddisonWylie