Year of Release: 2025
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Starring: Rebecca Ferguson, Idris Elba, Jared Harris, Tracy Letts, Greta Lee, Gabriel Basso, Moses Ingram, Jason Clarke, Malachi Beasley, Anthony Ramos, Willa Fitzgerald, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Brittany O'Grady, Jonah Hauer-King, Brian Tee, Kaitlyn Dever, Kyle Allen
Genre: Thriller, Drama
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 7
Watch it on Netflix
Synopsis and Review
Director Kathryn Bigelow is back, her first film in 8 years, since the lastly released "Detroit". This time around she has partnered with Netflix and writer Noah Oppenheim who also wrote Pablo Larrain's "Jackie" and the script for Wes Ball's "The Maze Runner", to bring her particular type of perspective to a very current storyline. The narrative's premise is a singular one, but the story is showcased from three different perspectives, of characters impacted by the events taking place. The first perspective is that of Captain Olivia Walker, whom we witness getting to her work at the White House, only to be confronted with a situation unlike anything she has ever witnessed before. A missile appears out of nowhere destined for the United States, and she and her team have to deploy counter-measures. Her boss is removed to a special locale, in case of detonation, and she and her team frantically try to address the looming threat, that is going to occur in a less than 30 minutes. She decides to stay at her post, and quickly informs her husband to get their young child out of harm's way and escape. The second perspective witnessing the events taking place is that of Deputy National Security Advisor Jake Bearington, who is running late to work that morning with his pregnant wife. When the situation starts unfolding, he's making his way to the White House, while discussing on the phone the mounting pressures of the scenario with everyone involved, including the Secretary of Defense, and the President himself. He is trying to bring some calmness to the situation, though the pressure is immense, and the missile will possibly destroy one of the biggest American cities (though in all truth, they don't know if their equipment has been compromised, if that missile is indeed coming). The third perspective is that of the President of the US. He has a few appointments that day, while is wife is doing a safari in Africa. When he becomes aware of the situation, he is rapidly extracted, and taken to an official transport, while he gets as much information as possible, in the hopes he can make the best informed decision following what's about to happen. Bearington has conversed with the Russian ambassador, but he ultimately has no certainty to provide. It's all about to the President to make a decision, and he has with him a Lieutenant Commander showcasing the options available as means of retaliation.
Since winning an array of accolades for "The Hurt Locker", director Kathryn Bigelow hasn't been the most prolific of film makers. She directed the sensational "Zero Dark Thirty", "Detroit", and now "A House of Dynamite". To her credit, she has never been someone who released many films, but with her talent and point of view, the audiences are definitely missing out on a tremendous talent (one of my favorite films of the 1990s was her James Cameron collaboration, "Strange Days"). "A House of Dynamite" is in many ways, a film that has a very similar tone to the one Ms. Bigelow captured in "Zero Dark Thirty". That tone is one of mounting fear and pressure, illustrating how chains of command deal with the inevitability of dramatic decisions that need to be made/taken, and finally the toll these situations have on the individuals who are experiencing these challenges (and how those decisions have massive implications in the world). "A House of Dynamite" takes a different turn from "Zero Dark Thirty", since it doesn't focus on a central character like the latter did (embodied by Jessica Chastain, in one of her finest performances to date), it chooses instead to view the situation from three different characters perspectives, though I'd volunteer to say that the script could have aimed for a slightly different choice of perspective considering all the focal points of the narrative. The film has a solid pacing, and the director is able to quickly establish the characters who are populating the narrative, however the script is very narrowly focused on this microcosms, which makes it less successful and diverse in its reach. The script starts leering towards a version of the show "24", when it needed to have segments that counter balanced each other (or where the perspectives were slightly different). It's definitely a well mounted film featuring a solid cast, particularly the always fantastic Rebecca Ferguson, Idris Elba, Jason Clarke, Tracy Letts, and Jared Harris. The production team is solid, though the cinematography from Barry Ackroyd is a bit uneven, particularly the daylight shots which are ghastly, whereas the ones in the Alaska terrain are far more subtle and elegant. The score from Volker Bertelmann is impeccable, as is Kirk Baxter's editing. It's a very well crafted film, even if it doesn't reach the heights of prior releases from this talented director.
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