''Blue Caprice'' is a 2013 American

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Alexandre Moors Alexandre Moors (born 1972) is a French director, writer and editor. Early life Alexandre Moors is a French filmmaker born in Suresnes in 1972. As a teenager, he was an active member of the Parisian "graffiti" scene before attending Penninghen S ...

, and based on the 2002

D.C. sniper attacks The D.C. sniper attacks (also known as the Beltway sniper attacks) were a series of coordinated shootings that occurred during three weeks in October 2002 throughout the Washington metropolitan area, consisting of the District of Columbia, Mary ...

. The film stars

Isaiah Washington Isaiah Washington IV is an American actor and media personality. Following a series of film appearances, he came to prominence for portraying Dr. Preston Burke in the first three seasons of the series ''Grey's Anatomy'' from 2005 to 2007. Wash ...

and

Tequan Richmond Tequan Richmond (; born October 30, 1992), also known as T-Rich, is an American actor best known for playing Drew Rock on the UPN/The CW, CW sitcom ''Everybody Hates Chris''. Richmond played Ray Charles Jr. (son of singer and musician Ray Charle ...

as the perpetrators of the attacks,

John Allen Muhammad John Allen Muhammad (born Williams; December 31, 1960 – November 10, 2009) was an American convicted murderer from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He, along with his partner and accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo (aged 17), a native of Kingston, Jamaica, ...

and

Lee Malvo Lee Boyd Malvo (born February 18, 1985), also known as John Lee Malvo, is a convicted murderer who, along with John Allen Muhammad, committed a series of murders dubbed the D.C. sniper attacks over a three-week period in October 2002. Malvo was a ...

, respectively, although the two are only referred to by their first names. It recounts how Lee, a lone teenager, was drawn into the shadow of John, who served as a father figure to him, and how they eventually began their killing spree. ''Blue Caprice'' also stars

Joey Lauren Adams Joey Lauren Adams (born January 9, 1968) is an American actress and director. Adams starred in ''Chasing Amy'', for which she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, and played smaller role ...

Tim Blake Nelson Timothy Blake Nelson (born May 11, 1964) is an American actor and playwright. Described as a "modern character actor", his roles include Delmar O'Donnell in ''O Brother, Where Art Thou?'' (2000), Gideon in ''Minority Report'' (2002), Dr. Pendan ...

and

Leo Fitzpatrick Leonardo Aurellio Randy Fitzpatrick is an American actor and co-director of the Marlborough Chelsea gallery. He is best known as Telly in ''Kids'' (1995) and Johnny Weeks in ''The Wire'' (2002–2004). Career He was discovered at age 14 by d ...

. It was written by R.F.I. Porto. It debuted at the

2013 Sundance Film Festival The 2013 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 17, 2013, until January 27, 2013, in Park City, Utah, United States, with screenings in Salt Lake City, Utah, Ogden, Utah, and Sundance, Utah. The festival had 1,830 volunteers. Films A r ...

. The film was released in theaters on September 13, 2013.

Plot

Lee Lee may refer to: Name Given name * Lee (given name), a given name in English Surname * Chinese surnames romanized as Li or Lee: ** Li (surname 李) or Lee (Hanzi ), a common Chinese surname ** Li (surname 利) or Lee (Hanzi ), a Chinese ...

(

) moves to the United States from

Antigua Antigua ( ), also known as Waladli or Wadadli by the native population, is an island in the Lesser Antilles. It is one of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region and the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua and Bar ...

by himself; his mother cannot move due to her job. As a lone teenager, Lee comes in contact with

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

(

). John is living with his three children: one daughter and two sons. After spending some time together, John and Lee move to

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, Washington, Olympia, and northwest of Mount ...

, alongside John's girlfriend Angela (Cassandra Freeman). John starts introducing Malvo as his son. John meets his old-time friend, Ray (

), while going for a jog with Lee. Ray introduces Lee to guns. Lee turns out to be a natural marksman. One day, John tries to contact his children in

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

but is unsuccessful due to a

restraining order A restraining order or protective order, is an order used by a court to protect a person in a situation involving alleged domestic violence, child abuse, assault, harassment, stalking, or sexual assault. Restraining and personal protection or ...

. Frustrated by this, John comes home and has an argument with Angela over a petty issue; Angela throws John and Lee out of her house. John and Lee move in with Ray, his wife (

), and their toddler son. Lee discovers a cache of firearms in Ray's basement. Gradually, John brainwashes an impressionable Lee into committing murders. Lee commits his first murder by shooting a neighbor (Maya Woods) point-blank in the head. John encourages Lee to commit more murders in order to pay back the favor of bringing Lee to the United States. Lee commits his next murder by shooting a pub owner (Bruce Kirkpatrick) in the back and robbing him. With the robbery money, John and Lee buy a dark blue

Chevrolet Caprice Classic The Chevrolet Caprice is a full-sized automobile produced by Chevrolet in North America for the 1965 to 1996 model years. Full-size Chevrolet sales peaked in 1965 with over a million sold. It was the most popular car in the U.S. in the 1960s ...

. John teaches Lee how to drive and modifies the car's rear, adding a small makeshift

gun port A gunport is an opening in the side of the hull of a ship, above the waterline, which allows the muzzle of artillery pieces mounted on the gun deck to fire outside. The origin of this technology is not precisely known, but can be traced back to ...

to the trunk. In October 2002, John and Lee conduct a siege of terror on the

Washington, D.C. metropolitan area The Washington metropolitan area, also commonly referred to as the National Capital Region, is the metropolitan area centered on Washington, D.C. The metropolitan area includes all of Washington, D.C. and parts of the states of Maryland, Virgin ...

. Using a

Bushmaster XM-15 The Bushmaster XM-15 series (or XM15) is a line of AR-15 style semi-automatic rifles and carbines previously manufactured by Bushmaster Firearms International, LLC. Variants include the Bushmaster M4-type Carbine, Patrolman series, QRC series, B ...

rifle fired from the Caprice's gun port, they commit a series of random shootings in public places for two weeks, plunging the public into fear and hysteria. The

Montgomery County Police Department The Montgomery County Police Department (MCPD), officially the Montgomery County Department of Police (MCP), is a nationally accredited agency and the primary law enforcement agency of Montgomery County, Maryland, providing the full spectrum ...

and the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...

start investigating the attacks. One night, the two park in a no-parking spot to sleep; law enforcement, having caught up to them, surround their car and apprehend them, ending their ten-month-long crime spree, which caused 17 deaths and 10 injuries. Five months later, Lee is held in prison. He is visited by a lawyer (

Linda Powell Linda Margaret Powell (born April 16, 1965) is an American actress. Early life Linda Margaret Powell was born in Fort Benning, Georgia, on April 16, 1965 the daughter of Alma and Colin Powell, the former United States Secretary of State, Nation ...

) who tries to question him about the motives of the random killings. Lee remains stubborn and asks, "Where is my father?" as police officers escort him back to his cell.

Cast

as Jamie *

as Ray *

as Arms Dealer * Cassandra Freeman as Angela * Abner Expósito-Seary as John's son

Distribution and release

After premiering at Sundance, IFC's

Sundance Selects IFC Films is an American film production and distribution company based in New York. It is an offshoot of IFC owned by AMC Networks. It distributes mainly independent films under its own name, select foreign films and documentaries under its Sun ...

acquired domestic distribution rights.

Reception

Critical response

''Blue Caprice'' received generally positive reviews from critics. The film has a "certified fresh" score of 83% on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

based on 84 reviews, with an average score of 7.3 out of 10. The critical consensus states "Smart, sobering, and quietly chilling, ''Blue Caprice'' uses its horrible true-life story – and some solid performances – to underscore the dreadful

banality of evil ''Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil'' is a 1963 book by political thinker Hannah Arendt. Arendt, a Jew who fled Germany during Adolf Hitler's rise to power, reported on the trial of Adolf Eichmann, one of the major organizer ...

." The film also has a score of 76 out of 100 on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

based on 25 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews."

Box office

The film was given a

limited release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...

in North America in 36 theaters and grossed $93,995 in its entire run.

Graphic novel

In October 2013, it was announced that publisher

Red Giant Entertainment Red Giant Entertainment, Inc. is a Florida-headquartered comic book publisher and "transmedia" entertainment company established in 2005. Red Giant was founded by Benny R. Powell, former marketing writer for Priceline.com. Other key players in ...

would produce ''Public Enemies'', a graphic novel based on the film, to be written by the film's screenwriter, R.F.I. Porto.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Blue Caprice 2013 films 2013 biographical drama films 2013 crime drama films 2013 independent films 2010s serial killer films American crime drama films American independent films Hood films American serial killer films Drama films based on actual events 2010s English-language films Films set in 2002 Films set in Washington, D.C. Films set in Washington (state) Films scored by Colin Stetson Tacoma, Washington Crime films based on actual events African-American biographical dramas 2013 directorial debut films 2010s American films