Recensioni de* critic*

That Mackenzie and screenwriter Justin Piasecki directly quote several Michael Mann films should come as no surprise. Relay moves from suspense to something else. It’s not quite a love story, but it is a romance — a bluesy, boozy, defeated one, with clasped hands, muted farewells, final glances at moving trains. The stuff of true cinematic longing.

Relay is a tense and diverting urban espionage thriller, but the way it wriggles its way out of a tight thematic knot of its own devising, and in such rote fashion, means that it ultimately can’t hold a candle to its obvious touchstones.

Relay, a paranoid thriller that sneaks in its character study so stealthily that it takes a while to realize who is actually being studied.

“Relay” depends so completely on how it sticks the landing that watching it crash and burn was a truly depressing experience.

If Relay stayed true to the level of robotic precision that Tom’s movements possess, I think it would still have been enough to maintain our investment in the thriller aspects of the cat-and-mouse chase. The filmmakers, however, feel the proceedings needed more of a human touch.

Its beat is superb, and it rarely lets up for the entirety of its run. There’s a great deal of suspense and the film always stays at least one step ahead of its viewer, ready to provide a new enticing twist or development to ensure full engagement... Relay is a great ride, overflowing with creativity and firing on all cylinders for a memorable and enthralling watch.

With so many New York-set films choosing the ease and affordability of a stand-in city, there’s a thrill to Mackenzie’s on-the-ground authenticity, the kind of film New Yorkers will watch while quietly doing the headwork to place each scene. But in an attempt to accentuate, he gives the film a stark HD crispness that renders it a little soulless visually.

Ahmed excels in this role which requires his character to communicate a range of emotions — confident swagger to anxious focus — with few words.

Sharp, fun, and smartly entertaining from its first scene to its final twist, David Mackenzie’s “Relay” is an old-fashioned movie about an old-fashioned guy. The movie is a modern paranoid thriller that harkens back to the genre’s ’70s heyday (though the far more recent “Michael Clayton” might be its most obvious point of reference)