Lawrence Levine’s comedy thriller Wild Canaries is opening February 25 at the IFC Center and on online platforms. Below, from our print magazine, are my comments after the film’s premiere at SXSW. And, check out the trailer above.

Most independent films don’t have enough plot. That criticism can’t be leveled at Wild Canaries, Lawrence Michael Levine’s loose-limbed caper comedy. Levine and his wife, the actress and director Sophia Takal, star as a Brooklyn couple who become convinced their upstairs neighbor was murdered to gain control of her rent controlled apartment. Influenced by the “Thin Man” movies as well as Woody Allen’s Manhattan Murder Mystery, this slickly made film boasts a large ensemble, crosses and double-crosses, slapstick humor mixed with relationship drama, a car chase, shoot-outs, bisexuality and plenty of skulking up and down fire escapes while wearing wide-brimmed hats. All of this registers as quite charming, actually, the kind of genre-friendly divertissement more filmmakers should consider making.