Having achieved such great success in his career and even winning an Oscar, it seems that Riz Ahmed is long overdue for a more classic leading role. Relay certainly has great potential to become an espionage thriller, taking cues from famous films such as Michael Clayton coupled with the works of Alan Pakula from the 70’s but in this case its writer Justin Piasecki puts a twist of his own in the espionage genre with Relays fascinating approach to its premise. Even though the themes of corporate thresholds and paranoia are not novel concepts, Piasecki makes use of his unique device depicting a telephone relay system which forms the linchpin of this film. The protagonist, played by Ahmed, has slyly acted as a middle man between paranoid corporate whistle blowers and the corporations themselves, and in so doing has taken on many roles, and many literally wearing different hats. It is indeed extremely satisfying to see Ahmed portray such a character, constantly in a new costume in every scene and making his character out to be extremely composed and competent even after he has hilariously walked into forks in the scene.
It is a pleasant relief for audiences of this genre to see a lead of South Asian and Muslim descent in this role, and not as a one dimensional, stereotypical terrorist but as a wonderfully quirky and somewhat enigmatic character who is far more multifaceted and realistic. Where Relay truly excels is when it treads back into the stylistic territory of the predecessors while also pushing the envelope of the conceptual scope of the film. Using the telephone relay system as a device for communication also allows for some very interesting and well cut scenes that contribute a lot of tension and are just fun to watch play out. This framing device also serves as an interesting way to view the relationship between the characters. It is very evident that both Lily James and Sam Worthington give a great performance even when it is just through telephone calls, and in fact Worthington gets to go all out and fits the role of the thriller villain perfectly.
David Mackenzie has had his fair share of surprises as far as his career goes, dealing with a range of genres. He has done a more hardcore contemporary thriller with Hell or High Water and his directional forte really suits the refined and clean style of Relay. Mackenzie can be associated with the  filmmaking of Michael Mann and Tony Gilroy in his cool and composed dirigering style which is rather comforting to have, also providing source material for reference. Mackenzie very much knows the kind of film he is directing and does so in an able manner.
Relay is actually a good case in point. It combines interesting and entertaining content with a real attempt to make something completely new within a largely defined niche of the genre. And even when it does lose the right direction in its plots sturm and drang style towards the finale, it never runs out of chances to keep the viewer’s attention and seek spoilery information as if it were on a rollercoaster even though it still appears a bit over edited and conceptually a bit more sophisticated than it actually is.
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