Cody takes a look at the latest Rossi thriller.
As the latest movie from writer/director Michael Matteo Rossi got started, I was instantly feeling John Carpenter vibes – specifically, Escape from New York vibes. While a synth score by Grant Kirkhope plays on the soundtrack, a text scroll gives us the set-up: By 2027, crime was out of control across the United States. A company called Addis Inc. created a one-time pill to eradicate any violent impulses. The pill became a global phenomenon, with countries across the world importing it in the pursuit of peace. Unfortunately, the pill was only effective for six months. Violent crime went back on the rise – and rather than stick with the approved plan of providing a consistent resupply of the violence-blockers, Addis Inc. decided to change the formula. There was more profit in crime and violence, so they made sure their pill would now increase the violence of those who took it. As the world fell in line to believe and trust the now all-powerful pharmaceutical company, a group of former employees became freedom fighters, seeking to take down the company.
Now it’s 2030, in the aftermath of World War III... but this is a low budget movie, so don’t expect this story of slightly-futuristic dystopia to look much different than the average day in 2026.
As soon as the text crawl comes to an end, that Carpenter / Escape from New York vibe dissipates, and it quickly becomes clear that we’re in the hands of a different filmmaker with a distinct vibe. There are few Michael Matteo Rossi movies I need to catch up on, but I have seen several at this point: Chase, Shadows, Murder Syndicate, The Charisma Killers, and now Censor Addiction, so I know what to expect when I fire up the latest one. Nobody makes movies quite like he does. There are things that many others do – violence, bad people doing bad things – but what makes Rossi’s approach to his subject matter stand out is that he usually doesn’t care if anyone finds his characters to be endearing.
Take the concept at the core of Censor Addiction: freedom fighters attempting to take down an evil pharmaceutical company. To tell that story, most writers and directors would focus on the heroes of the tale. We’d follow their attempts step-by-step, rarely checking in on the villains. Some might even make the head of the pharmaceutical company a mysterious figure that we wouldn’t see until the end. That’s not the Rossi way. Here, we might actually spend more time with the villains than with the heroes.
Chris Moss plays Addis Marshall, the head of Addis Inc. He knows a group of former employees are out to get him, and he has his lackeys – headed up by enforcers Canvas (Bart Voitila) and Fallon (Ana Ciubara) – working to quell this uprising by any means necessary. We see the villains interrogate people, use drugs to reprogram their minds, and even splatter a person’s brains over another person in an effort to intimidate them. When we get a flashback to give us a deeper understanding of some characters, the one who benefits the most is Addis.
We occasionally check in on those heroic freedom fighters, headed up by couple Soul (Daniel O’Reilly) and Lilith (Marnette Patterson). They used to be close friends with Addis, who even had an unrequited crush on Lilith. Other members of their group are played by the likes of Sascha Knopf, Vanessa Angel, Vernon Wells, and Sarah Murphree, but some of them have very minor roles, and in the end, it feels like we know more about the bad guys than most of the good guys.
One of the most impactful bad guys is a man named Jarek, played by Mike O’Hearn. Not only is he built like a hulking beast and powerful enough to crush someone’s head like a melon, but Addis Inc. has done some experimenting on him to make him impervious to pain and to accelerate his healing rate. He’s like a comic book character surrounded by normal crime thriller characters.
The situation builds to a violent climax - and overall, this turned out to be an interesting movie that was very much in line with the rest of the Rossi oeuvre... or at least, the Rossi movies I've seen. If you've ever seen or enjoyed his other movies, you'll probably have a good time with this one. And if you're not familiar with his work, you might find it interesting to see a low budget action thriller that tells it story in a different way than you would expect.
There's a satisfying ending, but the door is also left wide open for a sequel. I look forward to seeing if Rossi will move forward with one or if this will be our only journey through the world of Censor Addiction.
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