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His last film, 2008’s ‘Real Time’, starred Randy Quaid right before his flight to Canada as a ‘political refugee’, so writer-director Randall Cole should know something about living on the edge. It’s disappointing, then, that although Cole peppers this low-budget stalker drama with moments of tension, he’s incapable of sustaining them.
Nick Stahl is James, a white-collar worker whose wife goes missing. There’s someone watching his house and sending him odd emails, but the cops don’t care. Constructed entirely of surveillance footage and handheld video, ‘388 Arletta Avenue’ is grainy and unsettling, and makes the most of Stahl – we never know whether James is really innocent. But there’s little new: the intimidation techniques (pet abduction, home invasion) feel clichéd and the film trundles towards an unenlightening conclusion.