'Assassin' guns for supposed JFK killer

By Manohla Dargis
Los Angeles Times

•	'Interview with the Assassin' Not rated (adult language and mild violence) 88 minutes

Incredulous, Ron nonetheless keeps his video camera running, first out of curiosity, then out of mounting self-interest. (He has a wife, a kid and a house to keep going, along with a decrepit sense of self to repair.)

The more footage the cameraman shoots, the more deeply he buys into his neighbor's story, which he traces from a bank vault, where Walter brandishes a gun cartridge, to the grassy Dallas knoll where the alleged sniper walks Ron through the past, narrating the execution with geometric precision.

Shot in handheld digital video, "Interview With the Assassin" is another faux documentary about the power of suggestion. The film was written and directed by newcomer Neil Burger, who uses the JFK assassination and its aftermath to score a few points about how our culture of fear dovetails with our obsession with surveillance.

Ron wants to believe what he sees, but it may be that he's just seeing what he believes, a distinction that takes on a perversely comic bent when he and his wife scrutinize some home-video images for intruders, turning the blurred pictures into their very own Zapruder footage.

Burger knows how to shoot and this is one feature where the dingy digital imagery arguably makes sense, but it's too bad he didn't work harder at finding something more original with which to test his talent than the JFK assassination and the gimmick of the phony nonfiction film.

The smartest move he makes is to keep his sights focused on Barry's bristling paranoia. Whether softening his military cadences with a touch of the South or shimmying down the outside wall of a motel, the veteran character actor goes a long way toward padding what is a clever if fundamentally minor conceit. His homespun menace keeps you watching.