This Russell Crowe thriller is blowing up on Netflix

Russell Crowe may not be the star gladiator The sequel hits theaters next month, but this week it made it to the top of the Netflix charts. On Thursday, Confused is the most popular film on the streamer, surpassing all Netflix originals as well as those recently added Bad Boys: Ride or Diewhich was released in cinemas just a few months ago.

This psychological thriller follows a madman named Tom Cooper (Crowe) who decides to teach a single mother named Rachel Flynn (Caren Pistorius) “what it means to have a bad day” after she honks at him in traffic while carrying her son Traffic goes to school at rush hour.

Director: Derrick Borte (The Joneses) and written by Carl Ellsworth (Disturbance), the cast also includes Jimmi Simpson, Gabriel Bateman, Austin P. McKenzie, Michael Papajohn, Lucy Faust, Devyn Tyler, Andrew Morgado, Juliene Joyner and Stephen Louis Grush.

The reviews were decidedly mixed, there Confused has 48% on Rotten Tomatoes and 6/10 on IMDb. In his review CNN's Brian Lowry called it “an anti-blockbuster, a small film with a retro drive-in feel that loses nothing in the domestic setting and, given its minimal value, in any case has little to lose.”

Nevertheless, the pandemic-era thriller is lighting up the Netflix charts. The positive reviews note that while the film doesn't have much to say, Crowe gives a convincing portrayal of the psychopathic villain and the action never stops once it starts.

You can stream Confused currently on Netflix.