Time for a new film review thread. Legacy thread in ye olde closed part of the forum here -
https://thesoundboard.net/viewtopic.php?t=831
House of Dynamite
Netflix
A missile launch from somewhere in the pacific is detected within the US defence system. Time to impact within the continental US - 19 minutes.
That's all I'm gonna say about the story outside spoiler tags. It is directed by Katheryn Bigelow -
Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty - so you know it is gonna have muscle and heft. It is shot by Paul Greengrass' cinematographer, so you know it's gonna look like realty a la
United 93 and
Captain Philips. It is scored by Volker Bertelmann, so you know it's gonna sound like the oppressive impending horror of
All Quiet On The Western Front. It is written by Noah Oppenheim so you know it's gonna be fearless like
Jackie. It has a hugely impressive cast list, and everyone is uniformly excellent.
I thought it was outstanding, likely film of the year. So why have many reviews and so much audience feedback been negative? I could tell you, but I'd have to kill you.
Or wrap it in spoiler tags. NB - I'm also going to have to touch on politics here, it's unavoidable. Sorry. If you disagree with my take, I still love you.
► Show Spoiler
The film's structure is teasing - the 19 minutes get played out 4 times, each time revealing another aspect of the unfolding terrifying events. For me it worked absolutely brilliantly and of course gets you absolutely desperate to know - WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN? Will Chicago get annihilated? Is all out nuclear war inevitable?
Your final warning - turn away now if you don't want to know.
And the answer is - you won't know. You will never know. The audience is right on the edge of their seats and the credits roll. Everyone has cried "cop out", felt cheated and lets the internet know about it.
I'm not saying this was a uniquely brilliant way to end the film, but I do think it worked phenomenally well. The final 19 minutes you spent with the president whom you have never seen, and they do a mean thing - they first make you think he's playing golf (ie Trump). Instead, it's Man Of The People Idris Elba and - just goona say it - it's Obama. And 90% of the audience around the world goes "oh thank God".
Then you realise - is it really "thank God"? This is the fantasy. This terrifying fiction is plausible, and Trump is the reality.
THEN you realise - no human being can make this call. The president is alone with the 32 year old with the nuclear codes, whose life up to this point has been spent understanding every option open to the president so he can calmly explain them and let the big guy make that final judgement. In reality, faced with not knowing for sure if the missile will pulverise Chicago and STILL not knowing who fired it, there are no good choices. He wants to hand it over to the 32 year old with the briefcase.
The effect of not knowing the ending left me deeply unsettled. What the lack of closure does is to rack up the tension even MORE. This stuff could happen at any second, and good options there are none. The entire world's fate rests on the CHARACTER of the President of the United States.
One of the scariest movies I ever saw.
