In the Shadow of the Moon (2019)

In the Shadow of the Moon is the kind of sci-fi thriller that hooks you with a deliciously impossible premise and then keeps tightening the screws, letting a cop story in late-’80s Philadelphia bloom into something stranger, bigger, and eerily intimate. Jim Mickle gives it a sleek, nocturnal atmosphere—part procedural grit, part mind-bending mystery—while Boyd Holbrook anchors the ride with a performance that makes obsession feel less like a trope and more like a slow, human unraveling. The action is sharp, the visuals and score hum with purpose, and the film’s ambition pays off in the way it nudges you to think about cause-and-effect long after the credits. It’s not for viewers who need every twist to be perfectly tidy, but if you like high-concept puzzles with real momentum and mood, it’s an easy recommendation.

In the Shadow of the Moon is trying to mash up a gritty cop thriller with a high-concept sci-fi mystery about time, fate, and bigger social ideas, and you can feel the ambition behind it. The problem is the story keeps piling on twists and rules until it starts to feel muddled and a bit derivative, so the suspense turns into “wait, what?” rather than genuine tension. If you need tight plotting, strong character depth, or a thriller that moves with urgency, this one may test your patience and leave you emotionally at arm’s length. Still, Boyd Holbrook sells the obsession well, the moody atmosphere works, and if you enjoy puzzle-box genre movies and don’t mind some heavy-handedness, you might find it an okay one-night watch.