More than almost any other streaming service, Peacock is filled with Oscar-winning hidden gems. The service has tons of interesting movies and shows on it, but it can be hard to find exactly what you’re looking for on the streamer. If you find yourself digging through the titles on the service and are coming up empty-handed, we’ve got just the movie for you this July.
Coherence is a genuinely great psychological thriller that you’ve probably never heard of. It’s set at a dinner party where a group of eight friends have gathered. When a comet passes overhead, strange things start to happen for the party that leaves them questioning their own reality. Here are three reasons you should definitely check it out this month.
It gets the most out of a limited budget
It’s impossible to deny that Coherence is a relatively small-scale enterprise. The movie is set almost entirely within a single, relatively modest location, but it wrings every conceivable dollar out of that one location. To its credit, this is also a movie that right-sized its own ambition to the budget it was working with.
Coherence is not a Star Wars movie, but the tension built through every moment of on-screen dialogue will leave you convinced that you’ve watched something just as riveting. Small-scale movies like this can often feel shaggy, but Coherence is as tight as a drumhead from minute one.
It gets pleasantly confusing
One of the wildest things about Coherence is the way it continues to upend your expectations. Its sci-fi premise is best left as unspoiled as possible, but the second you think you’ve got your hold on exactly what’s happening to these people, an additional wrinkle is added that further complicates things.
You might lose the thread of exactly what’s going on as you watch, but that’s ultimately part of the movie’s fun. It’s a movie that feels like it makes internal sense, even as the twists and turns keep piling up so much so that you can’t keep what’s happening straight.
Every member of the cast understands their assignment perfectly
Saying that people “understood the assignment” can feel a bit worn out these days, but it’s very true of the cast of Coherence. Because this movie is operating at such a modest scale, it has to take full advantage of everything that each member of the cast is bringing to the table.
These actors all know their characters, and they establish quite quickly who these people are so that we start to pick up on subtle changes in their behavior. It’s a necessary piece to the puzzle that is Coherence, and it’s one that every member of this relatively unknown ensemble delivers on with aplomb.
You can watch Coherence on Peacock.