BRAVADO Review: A Wickedly Fun Psychological Thriller That Turns Screenwriting Into a Full-Blown Nightmare

I love movies that get a little weird, have fun with their characters, and find creative ways to tell a story, and Bravado is exactly that kind of movie!

Director Alex Hanno has cooked up a wonderfully twisted, darkly funny psychological thriller that takes the already maddening process of writing a screenplay and turns it into an increasingly unhinged battle of egos, creativity, and psychological torture.

It's quirky, intense, occasionally ridiculous, and surprisingly relatable. As someone who loves writing screenplays, I connected with this movie on a painfully personal level.

I've been through the frustration of trying to get a script right, questioning every creative decision, and going back for rewrite after rewrite after rewrite. This movie takes that familiar suffering, cranks it up to an absurd degree, and somehow makes the whole miserable experience incredibly entertaining!

While I have a few issues with how everything comes together, I had a ridiculously good time watching this thing.

The story follows Amy Erickson (Caitlin Morris), an aspiring Hollywood screenwriter who has spent 15 years trying to get her big break. She's talented, desperate, socially awkward, and just trying to get somebody to recognize that she has something worth making.

I absolutely loved this character! Morris gives Amy this wonderfully uncomfortable, amusingly awkward personality that makes her both hilarious and incredibly easy to root for. She's the kind of person who can make an ordinary conversation feel like a social obstacle course, and watching her navigate the increasingly bizarre situations she finds herself in is half the fun.

Then along comes Patrick Lombardi (Luca Malacrino), a once-successful filmmaker with an ego the size of a studio backlot and an Off-putting uncomfortable personality. He takes an interest in Amy's gritty British mafia screenplay, but what initially seems like the opportunity she's been waiting for quickly turns into a creative partnership from hell.

Patrick has opinions about EVERYTHING, and he's more than happy to tear her work apart until she gets it right. The frustrating thing is, the obnoxious bastard actually makes some good points! That's what makes their relationship so entertaining. He's an absolute nightmare to deal with, but you can understand why Amy keeps listening to him.

I enjoyed how Bravado brings the screenwriting process to life through its clever movie-within-a-movie concept. Instead of just watching Amy sit at a computer while slowly losing her mind, we actually get to see the mafia thriller she's writing play out on screen.

Every time Patrick demands another rewrite, the story changes, the characters evolve, and scenes we've already watched take on entirely different personalities. It's such a fun way to explore how a screenplay develops, especially when one little creative adjustment can completely transform the tone of a scene.

The gangster sequences, filmed in Cardiff, Wales, bring their own strange energy to the movie, and I loved watching the actors adapt to the increasingly wild changes in Amy's script.

There's even an appearance from Malacrino's father, Giovanni Malacrino, who gets to join in on the madness. The whole concept is wonderfully playful, and it gives the filmmakers plenty of opportunities to get weird with the storytelling.

It also creates this amusing situation where we're watching a movie about someone desperately trying to write a better movie, while the movie itself keeps changing right in front of us. That's some wonderfully geeky filmmaking nonsense, and I'm completely on board with it!

The real reason this movie works so well, though, is Morris. She carries the whole thing with an awkward charm that I found endlessly entertaining.

Amy is a mess, but she's a lovable mess, and there's something painfully funny about watching someone try to maintain a shred of confidence while another person systematically dismantles everything they've worked on. Her reactions, nervous energy, and growing frustration give the film so much of its personality.

Malacrino is also great as Patrick, playing him as this insufferably arrogant creative tyrant who seems to believe that emotional destruction is simply part of the artistic process. Their chemistry is fantastic because their personalities clash in such entertaining ways. One minute, their interactions are genuinely funny, and the next, things get surprisingly nasty.

As the story progresses, the psychological pressure builds, the relationship becomes more toxic, and the film starts drifting into some intense territory. It's like watching a screenwriting workshop gradually turn into a hostage negotiation, except the hostage keeps agreeing to another round of notes!

I liked that the movie could make me laugh at the absurdity of these characters while also making me uncomfortable with how far things were going.

Anyone who's spent hours wrestling with a scene, convinced they've finally cracked it, only to realize the entire thing still doesn't work, will recognize that particular form of insanity. I certainly did!

By the time Bravado reaches its increasingly intense conclusion, I was completely invested in Amy's chaotic creative journey. Hanno and Malacrino, who co-wrote the screenplay, clearly have a lot of fun poking at the ridiculous, obsessive, and sometimes downright unhealthy lengths people will go to in pursuit of making something great.

Underneath all the dark humor, awkward personalities, and psychological madness, there's a genuine affection for the creative process, even when that process makes you want to throw your laptop through a window. I especially appreciated that the movie doesn't romanticize screenwriting as some magical activity where brilliant ideas effortlessly pour onto the page.

Sometimes writing sucks! Sometimes you hate everything you've written! Sometimes you spend three days fixing a scene only to discover the original version was better!

Bravado understands that maddening cycle and turns it into a quirky, wonderfully entertaining psychological thriller. It's not a perfect movie, but it's an inventive, funny, occasionally vicious little indie film with terrific performances and a personality all its own.

I had a good time with it, and I'd happily recommend it to anyone who enjoys offbeat psychological thrillers, movies about filmmaking, or watching creatively dysfunctional people drive each other absolutely insane.

And if you're a screenwriter, this one might hit a little too close to home. Just be prepared to have some unpleasant flashbacks to your own unfinished scripts.