In fact, their son, though well into elementary school, doesn’t even know that Roy’s his dad. Frank Grillo stars as Roy, an ex-Special Forces badass so committed to tracking down evildoers in the line of duty that he neglected the one woman he really loved, a theoretical physicist named Jemma ( Naomi Watts) in charge of a secret project, and their son together. And “ Boss Level,” a passion project he’s been developing since at least 2012, is a solid one. That knack for clarity and continuity makes Carnahan an ideal fit for a time-loop movie. In movies like “Smokin’ Aces” and “The Grey,” he achieved a level of impressionistic immersion through rapid editing, but never sacrificed clarity and continuity - the action in his movies always makes spatial sense, even if it’s the camera bobbing above the whitecaps of a roaring river, as Liam Neeson gets half-drowned in some deadly rapids.

The director of muscular genre fare has always had a feel for composition and camera movement a cut above some of his peers. It’s been nearly seven years since Joe Carnahan’as last film, but the stylistic hallmarks of his work remain unmistakable.

Who stars in the boss movie