Sharper is a new drama/thriller on Apple TV+. It stars Justice Smith, newcomer Brianna Middleton, Julianne Moore, Sebastian Stan, and John Lithgow as a variety of rich people and scammers in a complex, twisty, non-linear film about confidence men.

And it starts super strong with a great meet up and romance between Smith and Middleton. I didn’t know the genre of the movie I was watching so I was constantly worried one would turn out to be an axe murderer. The last time I worried about that, it was Sebastian Stan in Fresh. And both have turns, though not the murderous kind this time.

And I was enjoying the movie but that enjoyment kept dropping the more characters they introduced. I wasn’t nearly as invested in the twisty plot and new sets of characters as I was the original duo… but then the movie would pull a mid-story twist and my estimation would go back up.

But unfortunately the movie teaches you methodically that you can’t trust anything… so when the final act occurs, I was not invested because I assumed what we were watching wasn’t what was happening. Maybe that’s the movie’s fault, maybe I’ve seen one too many grifter movies. Maybe both.

So I was engaged and enjoyed a decent amount of the movie and felt surprised some of the time, but not nearly as much as they wanted. It’s a good film though.

Score: 78