Jana Raluy in A Monster with A Thousand Heads (Music Box Films)

What starts as a cancer drama shifts to a thriller that plays out almost seemingly in real time. Jana Raluy plays Sonia Benot, a woman whose 48-year-old husband is increasingly ill. After he suffers a nighttime attack, Sonia calls his doctor repeatedly to push up the next appointment, but she keeps getting his voicemail. All she wants is the doctor to give her husband the go-ahead for an experimental drug, but, alas, approval would require more than just his signature. The rest of the movie plays out as she and her punk rock son track down medical professional after medical professional, each one passing her on to the next person responsible for her husband’s rejection from the drug trial.

It’s not surprising that as she goes higher up the chain of command, the places she and her teenaged son, Darío (Sebastían Aguirre Boëda), visit become more and more extravagant. Darío’s wearing a Ramones T-shirt, juxtaposed to these increasingly more posh locations, becomes a visual cue to the kind of social justice the filmmakers are advocating. Thinking that seeing the doctor in person will appeal to his humanity, Sonia takes all of her husband’s medical records to his office, where she is told he is out for the day. Minutes later, she watches him walk by her in the waiting room. With Darío in tow, she confronts Dr. Villalba in the parking garage, but after he tells her to come back on Monday, the two follow him to his home, and Sonia intrudes the doctor’s house and pulls a gun on him and his wife.

The director-writer/husband-wife team of Rodrigo Plá and Laura Santullo have crafted a thriller packed with social commentary (comparisons could be made to the upcoming Jodie Foster film Money Monster) and have realistically dramatized the many ways a hostage situation could go terribly wrong. There is a constant air of hopeless desperation in Sonia’s plight, as she has clearly not thought this whole thing through. Every time she pulls out the gun, she’s not just putting the people responsible in danger but innocent bystanders as well.

With no accompanying musical score, this is a quiet film, making every scene feel in the moment. From the film’s opening—a still shot inside the family’s darkened home that is gradually revealed as lights flick on—there is nary an image not packed with vital details. Even Dr. Villalba’s office is embedded deep within a medical complex that looks like an Orwellian nightmare; Sonia and Darío are separated from access to the doctor by a phalanx of cubicles.

Another comparison between this film and Hollywood thrillers (what a coincidence the similarly plotted and named Money Monster is coming out at the same time) is that when Sonia’s gun goes off, it sounds so real it shakes the audience every time, whereas in other films the gunshots often sound like the corn popping in the lobby, completely missing the mark.

A Monster with a Thousand Heads will satiate those with a desire for a well-paced thriller without all the Hollywood flair.