Tonight, about 100 American theaters are showing a movie you can’t buy a ticket to on the usual ticketing apps. Confession, a Soviet prison drama written by Ben Shapiro, directed by Václav Marhoul and led by Rob Lowe and James Franco, plays one night only on Wednesday, Nov. 11, and starts streaming on The Daily Wire the same day. By the time most people hear about it, the big-screen part will already be over.
Here’s what this article is and isn’t. I haven’t seen the film, and nothing was screened for me, so this isn’t a review. It’s the confirmed facts, the real history behind the setting, how the first critics are reading it, and my own opinion on what would make a film like this work. The three tests and the verdict are mine.
The facts at a glance
The release
The film
The cast
The story, in one paragraph: it is Moscow in 1938. Alexei is arrested and taken to the Lubyanka prison, accused of conspiring with a dissident priest. His interrogator turns out to be a former student of his. Over the course of the film, according to ComingSoon’s summary, Alexei is pressured to sign a false confession while facing his past, his estranged family and his faith, and trying to protect other people.
Why one night, and who it is for
The Daily Wire says its 100 screenings are exclusive to its members and that tickets are sold only on its own site, not at theater box offices or on ticketing apps. It presents the event as a thank-you: the company says its members are the reason the film exists. Shapiro, in a promotional episode, calls it the most ambitious project the company has ever produced, and mxdwn described it as the company’s highest-profile film package to date.
My take: as a launch strategy, it’s clever. A members-only night guarantees a friendly room, a sense of occasion and plenty of social media, and it lets the company skip the harsh math of an ordinary opening weekend. The cost is that nobody else is invited in. Because tickets don’t run through the usual channels, I found no box office tally, so there will be no number to argue about on Monday. The film’s reputation will be settled almost entirely by reviews and audience reactions, which is a harder place to hide.
How to watch it today
- In a theater tonight: go to dailywire.com/findtheater, enter your ZIP code, then log in or join The Daily Wire and buy your ticket. Members only, and only through that page.
- At home: the film arrives on The Daily Wire’s streaming service on Nov. 11, the same day as the theater screenings.
- Anywhere else: I found no announcement of any other platform or any wider theatrical release.
The 1938 history the film is built on
Whatever you think of the writer, the setting is real, and it helps to know it. The Lubyanka was built in 1898 as an insurance company’s headquarters. After the Bolshevik Revolution, the government took it over in 1918 for the secret police, and the prison there was operating by 1920. Its inmates over the decades included the poet Osip Mandelstam and, later, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. A grim Soviet joke called it the tallest building in Moscow, because you could supposedly see Siberia from its basement.
The year 1938 sits at the end of the Great Purge, the wave of repression that ran from 1936 to 1938 and peaked under the secret police chief Nikolai Yezhov. Meduza’s explainer says more than 1.7 million people were arrested on political charges between August 1937 and November 1938, and scholars estimate the purge’s death toll at roughly 700,000 to 1.2 million. The show trials of Old Bolsheviks in Moscow rested on confessions that, by the account of later research, were forced. That is exactly the territory Confession walks into: a man, a room and a page he is told to sign.
One caution. Setting a story in real history doesn’t make it a true story. Nothing I read describes Confession as an adaptation of one real case, and the characters appear to be invented.
Two early reviews, two different movies
The critic says he was tempted to dismiss the film on ideological grounds but his real complaint is craft. He calls the 132 minutes stultifying, the dialogue stilted, and says neither Lowe nor Franco is convincing.
The reviewer calls it stagey but smart, praises the literary back-and-forth between the two leads, and singles out a harrowing story from Nick Nolte and a persuasive scene for Jennifer Jason Leigh.
What I notice is what they agree on. Both describe a talky film. World of Reel had already pointed out from the trailer that it is a single-location chamber piece, the opposite of the three-hour black-and-white odyssey that was The Painted Bird. The two reviews disagree only about whether the talk works. One hears an academic food fight and likes it, the other hears automatons and doesn’t.
Elsewhere, the reaction is already sorted by team. A Hot Air column urged readers to see it in a theater, and Showbiz411 reported harsh comments on Letterboxd on release day. I found no Rotten Tomatoes score in the sources I checked, so I won’t quote one.
My take: three tests
A film written by one of America’s best-known political commentators arrives with its reviews half-written. I understand that. But a drama about forced confessions isn’t automatically a partisan act, because the Great Purge is one of the best-documented state crimes of the 20th century. The useful question is craft, and here are the three tests I would use once I sit down with it.
- Highest stakes
Does Vladimir get to be persuasive?
An interrogation drama lives or dies on the interrogator. If Vladimir is a thug, the film is a pamphlet. If he is smart, sincere and a little bit right about something, it becomes a tragedy. The two reviews read the same scenes in opposite ways, so this is where I would look first.
- Biggest risk
Does the room keep changing?
Chamber dramas earn their length by escalating. 12 Angry Men runs 96 minutes. Confession reportedly runs 130 to 132, and the critic who liked it still felt the need to say the film papers over its length. Every ten minutes needs a new pressure point.
- Quiet test
Does Marhoul’s camera still matter?
The Painted Bird divided audiences with its images. Here, a director known for what he shows has to find images inside one building, mostly through faces. If the camera only records conversations, the script has to carry everything.
Who should go and who should skip
Go if
- You like dialogue-driven period dramas and don’t need chases or twists.
- The cast is the draw: Lowe, Franco, Nolte, Leigh, Smit-McPhee, Dourif.
- You are curious about Soviet history and the Lubyanka.
- You want to see The Daily Wire’s biggest swing at a prestige film for yourself.
Skip if
- You want a fast thriller. Two critics call this one talky.
- Torture sequences and a bleak mood are a dealbreaker.
- Two-plus hours in one setting sounds like a long evening.
- You’re not already a Daily Wire member and don’t want to sign up to see it.
Questions, answered fast
Is Confession a true story?
Not as far as the coverage I found shows. It is described as a psychological historical drama with its own characters, set in real history: Moscow in 1938, during Stalin’s Great Purge, at the real Lubyanka prison. None of the reports I read names a specific real case it adapts.
How long is Confession?
Reports vary slightly. The Hollywood Reporter lists 2 hours 12 minutes (132 minutes), Hollywood in Toto lists 2 hours 10 minutes, and BroadwayWorld lists 130 minutes. Plan on a little over two hours.
Where can I watch Confession?
In about 100 U.S. theaters tonight, Nov. 11, for one night only, or on The Daily Wire’s streaming service starting the same day. The theater tickets are sold only through The Daily Wire, to its members, not on the usual ticketing apps.
Is Confession rated?
I found no MPA rating. It is listed as not rated. Hollywood in Toto’s content note mentions torture sequences, mature themes, violent situations and modest blood.
Who is in the Confession cast?
Rob Lowe plays Alexei and James Franco plays Vladimir. Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Brad Dourif, Nick Nolte, Emile Hirsch and Dean Norris appear in supporting roles, and Richard Brake and Colin Bates also star.
Did Rob Lowe produce Confession?
Yes. The Washington Times, citing the studio’s announcement as reported by Forbes, says Lowe is also a producer. The film is written by Ben Shapiro and directed by Václav Marhoul.
I’m curious about this one, mostly because the ingredients are better than the loudest opinions on either side suggest: a director with a serious reputation, a cast of veterans and a premise rooted in documented history. My warning is about length. Two critics who disagree about almost everything both describe a talky film, and a little over two hours in one place is a lot to ask. If you go, go for the performances and the history. If you skip it, skip it for the runtime or the subject matter, not the byline.
