New On Netflix: Shutter Island

The first of two 2010 releases featuring Leonardo DiCaprio tortured to the point of madness by the memories of his wife and children, Shutter Island is a welcome return to the thriller genre for director Martin Scorsese. Indeed, the director hasn’t seemed this playful (or experimental) since Cape Fear (1991) — Marty relishes the extreme close-ups of Leo’s sweaty, trembling face, the thundering horns on the soundtrack and the oh so many disorienting ways he can pan and tilt the camera to make sure we stay as freaked out as our protagonist as he traverses the shadowy halls and winding staircases of an isolated psychiatric hospital that’s full of all sorts of dark secrets. Don’t mistake Shutter Island as one of the director’s more “classic” works such as GoodFellas or Raging Bull, asShutter Island is strictly a (very, very well-made) genre film — and proud to be one.