Review: ‘DASHCAM’ proves to be a suffocatingly tense thriller

Whether we’re invited into a stage-like apparatus in The Oak Room or yanked through a mental prison with Knocking or forced to witness the limits of one’s loss and grief with The Righteous, low-scale storytelling feels all the rage these days. Perhaps, that’s in large part to an ongoing pandemic, shuttered theaters, and a refocusing on contained, indie filmmaking hitting the VOD circuit. There’s a particular thrill in discovering a hidden gem among the flood of digital options; it’s almost like a new frontier of sorts. When it comes to filmmaker Christian Nilsson’s latest feature film, DASHCAM, you can certainly count his nail-biting, contained thriller among the cream of the crop. It’s the sort of stylish, yet somehow gritty, story that keeps you hooked without smoke and mirrors. It crawls under your skin, and that’s absolutely the best kind.

DASHCAM makes great use out of limited resources, keeping its story hyper-focused on a small cast and primarily one location. The story follows a self-effacing video editor named Jake (Eric Tabach), and Jake wants to be an on-camera reporter, yet he’s stuck schlepping for the total drip Tim Web (Zachary Booth). When tasked to edit footage, surrounding a fatal traffic stop involving former Attorney General Lieberman (Larry Fessenden), for the next morning’s New York 3 broadcast, Jake is fortuitously sent leaked documents that prove a cover up is afoot. His good friend Mara (Giorgia Whigham) suggests he prove himself and search out a story of his very own, and Jake takes it quiet to heart, quickly spiraling down into a wormy rabbit hole to uncover the truth of the ill-fated night.

Halloween is in the air, and Jake’s been invited to a costume party hosted by Gareth (Giullian Yao Gioiello) and Rachel (Noa Fisher), two pushovers who happen to live a couple buildings down on his block. Instead, he blows them off and burrows into his work, flipping through folders, secretly recorded phone calls, and other incriminating evidence. He soon stumbles upon raw, uncut dashcam footage, as well as a body cam feed, from the traffic stop which resulted in the death of a police officer. The film’s taut storytelling is gripping, even if some viewers might consider it a sludge to work through; we experience the film directly through Jake’s perspective and feel the chest-crushing twists right along with him. Tabach’s devoted and nuanced performance keeps the story threads from snapping completely, and you’re just waiting for the other shoe to drop. When his quest leads him to a tree nicknamed Hangman’s Elm in Washington Square Park, allegedly the site of additional private documents, Jake must pay a price — even if it costs him his life.

DASHCAM confronts journalistic integrity as much as it does the very nature of human existence. Jake is a proxy for the viewer, and as he wades chest-deep into political corruption, themes of desperation and morality intertwine with Nilsson’s masterful visual storytelling. Its grim outlook on government institutions may not be satisfying in the end, but it’s simply a slice of real life. And sometimes, all you really need to do is look in the mirror.

DASHCAM is out now on VOD.

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