RELAY

Here's the short answer: if you're an adult or older teen who doesn't mind rough language, this is a smart, tense thriller worth your evening. Riz Ahmed and Lily James anchor a cat-and-mouse story that's suspenseful and involving, with twists that land even when the plot gets tangled.

What earns the caution is straightforward. The R rating comes almost entirely from strong foul language — twenty obscenities, fifteen of them f-words — plus brief but real violence: a torched car, a stabbing used as a diversion, a gunfight and chase. There's no sex or nudity to worry about.

What earns the recommendation is just as clear. This is a movie that opposes corporate corruption, defends whistleblowers, and ends with the law upheld and evil exposed. It's a thriller with a conscience — just not one for the whole family.

Ash helps whistleblowers disappear safely after they've crossed powerful, corrupt companies — anonymously, and on his own terms. When Sarah, a young biotech employee, discovers her former employer buried a damaging test result on an agricultural product, she wants out: she'll return the documents she kept, if the company will finally leave her alone. But the company has other plans, and sends people to watch her every move. Ash takes her case — through an unusual channel that lets him stay hidden — and starts negotiating on her behalf while trying to keep her safe.

Three stars means this one delivers more than it fumbles. The plot is genuinely complex — complex enough that it's sometimes hard to follow — but the tension holds throughout, and the twists earn their surprise. Riz Ahmed and Lily James both do strong, controlled work, and the cat-and-mouse structure keeps real stakes on the table scene to scene.

The film's ambition with plotting is also its main flaw: viewers who like their thrillers tidy may find themselves working to keep track of who knows what. But "well-acted" and "suspenseful" are the words that stick, and they're the right ones. This is a solid genre picture that mostly earns its intrigue.

RELAY tells a moral story plainly: corporate corruption is wrong, whistleblowers deserve protection, and justice — eventually, after real risk — gets upheld. A police detective is portrayed as a positive, helpful figure, and the film never rewards the company's intimidation tactics. That's a worldview worth applauding in a genre that often settles for cynicism.

One detail deserves a single, direct note. Ash, our clean-shaven hero, poses in Muslim garb and a beard in order to move incognito while tailing henchmen and a security guard — a disguise, not a statement of faith, and the film never has him voice any actual Islamic beliefs. It's a small narrative device, but a discerning viewer should know it's there.

Beyond that, the film's moral bones are sound: truth is worth protecting, the powerless deserve an advocate, and wrongdoing doesn't get the last word. Scripture goes further than the movie does — justice isn't just a plot resolution, it's God's own character. "Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause" (Isaiah 1:17).

RELAY earns its praise honestly: a tense, well-acted thriller that takes the side of the whistleblower and the truth. It also earns its warning honestly, with language rough enough to keep it out of family movie night. Same verdict we opened with: worth the trip — older teens and adults. Looking for something the whole family can watch together instead? Check out our latest family-friendly picks.