The Magician (2005)
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A hitman allows a film student to document his daily life as a career criminal.
The story
Through the lens of a documentary, a film student named Massimo "Max" Totti follows the escapades of Ray Shoesmith, a Melbourne underworld hitman. Ray has hired Max to document his life as a career criminal. The film captures Ray's interactions with his associates, his explanations of his past in the military and the drug trade, and his methods for making targets 'disappear.' As the documentary progresses, the audience sees the reality of Ray's profession through the raw, found-footage style, establishing the grim reality of his lifestyle while he prepares for his next assignments.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Max, a film student, documents the life of Ray Shoesmith, a hitman in Melbourne. Ray tells Max about his past in the army and his current work in the underworld. The film follows Ray as he deals with various situations: he convinces a friend, Benny, to flee the state, and later kills him in the wilderness. He also 'deals' with a man named Edna to recover stolen property. Later, Ray captures Tony Richards, who owes money to his boss. Ray takes Tony into the desert, where Tony claims to have hidden $80,000. They travel across the country together, and during the journey, Max and Tony interact. At the destination, Tony reveals he buried a half-kilo of cocaine instead of cash; Ray accepts this and lets him go. In the end, Ray reveals the documentary was intended to be released after his death, and a postscript confirms he was killed five months after filming.
- First release year
- 2005
- Runtime (minutes)
- 85
- Production countries
- Australia
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Scott Ryan
- Writers
- Scott Ryan · writer
- Cast and characters
- Scott Ryan · Raymond John "Ray" Shoesmith; Ben Walker · Tony Richards; Massimiliano Andrighetto · Massimo "Max" Totti; Kane Mason · Benjamin Thomas "Benny" Mason; Nathaniel Lindsay · Edna
- Genres
- crime; comedy; drama
- Themes
- criminality; identity; mortality
- Tone and mood
- gritty; documentary-style
- Setting
- Melbourne and the Australian outback.
- Premise and plot tags
- found footage; crime; hitman
- Reception
- The film holds a 75% approval rating from critics based on 16 reviews at Rotten Tomatoes.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 75% · review count: 16
- Production trivia
- The film was originally shot over 10 days with a budget of .; A television series serialisation of the film, Mr Inbetween, aired on FX from 2018 to 2021.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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