Right at Your Door

With a finely honed craft and skill that belie its budget, Right at Your Door is a remarkable debut for its director, Chris Gorak. It begins on a beautiful, sunny morning in Los Angeles, where Brad (Rory Cochrane) has just kissed his wife, Lexi (Mary McCormack), off to work and started his day when the radio reports the detonation of a bomb. Announcements of additional explosions and an ominous, possibly toxic, cloud blowing ash across the L.A. basin quickly follow. With roads immediately closed off and phone contact elusive, Brad makes the decision to seal himself into his home, accomplishing the task with the assistance of a neighbor's handyman, Alvaro (Tony Perez), while awaiting his wife's return until... Right at Your Door perfectly portrays the realities of this kind of attack -- the isolation and fear, the panic, the frustration, and the media misinformation. When authority arrives, the anticipated help may, in fact, be anything but. Gorak and his collaborators demonstrate a restraint and attention to detail that multiply the effect of both the personal and public crises. This is ambitious and accomplished storytelling, wonderfully conceived and executed, that stands apart from similarly themed, multimillion-dollar extravaganzas that have nowhere near the tension, thoughtfulness, and impact of this very independent feature.