As the tension builds to its harrowing conclusion, and Alex begins to bare his teeth, Mathews pulls enough tricks from his sleeve to make Discreet a worthy digression.
Audiences who care more about how a film makes them feel than if it fully works will be rewarded. But those who need more will find that Discreet lives up to its name a bit too well, never fully offering answers to all the questions it asks.
Opaque and formally ungainly, this itchy meditation on a host of contemporary social ills offers audiences a vividly, deliberately ugly worldview, but finally makes for hollow viewing.