Well, this film isn’t exactly shifting its place on my
radar, and it’s not like there will ever be a good time to discuss it,
so what the hell, let’s do a political meme movie. The kind of movie that gets
tremendous word-of-mouth on the basis of it being a political statement, only
that aspect is taken at face value, resulting in a lot of discussion about it from
people who more than likely haven’t even seen it. As we’ll get into, that
itself is weirdly in-sync with the film’s contents, but as we’ll also get into,
that might be damning with faint praise on my part.
From writers Damon Lindelof and Nick Cuse, who have already
hit major poignancy with their surprisingly successful Watchmen series, and
director Craig Zobel, who among other things is a cornerstone of the Flash-era
Internet thanks to his work on Homestar Runner, this political satire/action
thriller/social horror/Demoncrat vs. Cuckservative yarn is one built on
extremities. And no, not just the ones that get blown off due to a hand grenade
down the pants.
Its story, essentially Black Mirror’s White Bear with a
blood-stained face-lift, builds on the social media-fuelled penchant for
conspiracy theories, here embodied as a ‘hunting reserve’ where the liberal
elite shoot down the Right for sport, and it certainly feels like a product of
Internet extremity in how laden it is with buzzwords. Words like ‘snowflake’,
‘cuck’, ‘problematic’, ‘politically correct’, or basically anything people dole
out when they want to disregard a person’s words to avoid actually responding
to them.
This along with the plot is meant to highlight just how
massive the political divide is in within the United States, furthered by how
much misinformation and rather bizarre self-fulfilling prophecy play into the
bigger plot developments. I specify “meant to” because, for a film so intent on
being politically-charged, it’s pretty frickin’ aimless in doing so. It plays
out like centrist theatre, only it’s what the term ‘centrist’ has come to mean
in the Internet age; i.e. yet another fucking label that serves as a “Get out
of actual conversation free” card.
Satire of this nature needs specificity, beyond timely
language, and this just doesn’t have enough of it. Pointing out how both sides
contribute to the bigger divide isn’t even that bad an idea on its own (hell,
it’s the kind of statement that needs to be kept in regular circulation), and I
like to think I’ve shown equal annoyance with soapbox features regardless of
leaning, but going back to the Black Mirror comparison, this lacks the
sharpness or even the empathy to make this kind of narrative work.
But the worst part of this whole thing? How fucking cool it
is as an action flick. Betty Gilpin in the lead handles action-hero status
insanely well, Darran Tiernan’s cinematography along with Nathan Barr’s
particularly extravagant soundtrack work nicely together, and the fight
choreography is top-tier shit. The hand-to-hand throwdowns, the gun fights, the
copious levels of gore on display; its presentation is incredibly on-point, and
if it was just an action-thriller, that would be more than enough.
However, just because it looks good doesn’t make the
rest of it so. It is genuinely frustrating sitting through a film like this,
one where its over-political mood means that sticking the landing is essential,
and ultimately leaving it like it provided only the barest of insights into the
political climate. All of a sudden, the mass media confusion over this film
makes a lot more sense; when the attempt at commentary is this bland,
it’s all too easy to imprint whatever the fuck you want to be enraged by onto
it.
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