dex14

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https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6205872/

TomOpus

Purge-lite?

Brian T

Saw this tonight at TIFF and was fairly impressed despite some flaws that just barely prevent it from being the timely cultural powderkeg it might have been. Still, the set-up -- a large-scale doxxing that sends the citizens of Salem, young and old alike, into a full blown witch hunt -- is more logical and relatable than the one in The Purge films.

For its first hour or more, this is one of the more believably complex and lurid explorations of social media culture and the lack of privacy among many of the films in recent years that have used the subject as a springboard, horror or otherwise, and it embraces all the invocable triggers head on (in part by literally listing them for the potentially faint of heart in an amusing opening montage). In fact, director-writer Sam Levinson has so much to say -- most of it on the money, and thankfully without passing judgment on his female characters in particular -- that he can't quite manage it all effectively before the ample gore and gunfighting consume most of the third act.

Notwithstanding a good stinger in its tail, the film's breakneck pace leaves a few unanswered questions, some characters not fully realized, and at least one key supporting character (played by Bill Skarsgard) missing from the narrative despite deserving a major comeuppance from unjustly persecuted heroine Odessa Young. Levinson blew off a TIFF question about this very issue with a somewhat waffle-y "life's like that" kind of reply which, while not untrue, felt slightly like misdirection. Maybe the answer lies in his followup references to the long delay between filming and release and some acknowledged editing challenges therein. This would also likely explain a really odd cut in the middle of the sequence where transgender heroine Hari Nef (in a noteworthy performance) deals with her own tormentor.

The film's debt to, in part, Japan's 'Delinquent Girl Boss' films is made explicit when the girls are shown half-watching a film from that series before donning signature red trench coats for the big showdown.

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Mabuse

Looks incendiary. Brutal satire.

Brian T

Q&A from TIFF. Quality's not the best due to shooting with my iPhone zoomed in a bit, but gives you an idea of the vibe for this one (house lights come up around 1:25, which helps). The marching band playing the end credits music (a Miley Cyrus song) live in the theatre was an inspired, if somewhat obvious marketing ploy to boost the buzz factor in the room in advance of the film's upcoming release, no doubt:

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dex14

It looks like this will be playing near me this weekend. I'll try and see it if I can.

Currently 62% on RT: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/assassination_nation

Why So Blu?

Finally saw the trailer. Looks like a cross between The Purge and Black Mirror. I hate The Purge films but Black Mirror is a masterpiece.

Brian T

‘Assassination Nation’ Ads Rejected by Facebook, YouTube
https://variety.com/2018/film/news/a...be-1202948840/

dex14

I absolutely loved this and thought it was a brilliant, timely social commentary. But this won’t be for everyone. I can’t even believe this got a decent theatrical release. It is bat shit crazy. So much going on and a smorgasbord of genres.

The ending was great lolz.

Brian T

Should be interesting to see if it turns into a sleeper hit. That Variety article I posted says it’s unlikely to open big because the studio’s marketing crew hasn’t been able to fully take advantage of social media to reach the under-25 set (I’m guessing a big chunk of its target audience will be too young to see it theatrically, though) but surely the word might still get around? Of all my TIFF picks this year, it’s the one that keeps creeping back into my conscience. So much of it is on point that its few rough edges will probably be forgivable to most viewers.

Why So Blu?

Yeah, I think I'm going to bite the bullet and check it out this weekend.

Perkinsun Dzees

Caught a showing of this. Initially, it felt like another bastard offspring of the pitch black teen comedy (and wildly influential) "Heathers" modernized with hip attitudes and thick doses of visual style by way of a Harmony Korinne flick.

First half hour was a bit off-putting as it throws us into this heavily stylized, self-centered teenage wasteland without sufficient grounding or any character to really care about. It gets increasingly interesting, though, when the plot kicks in and a community is torn asunder by an anonymous hacker who goes about hacking their way into the private lives of respected community members and exposing their "dirty" laundry for all to see. While the misdeeds that are revealed are hardly criminal (cross dressing, homosexuality, taking naked pictures of their child, visiting porn sites, etc) it all leads to the self righteous outrage of a conservative community that quickly turns bloodthirsty as the epidemic spreads.

The glib, satirical mood of the first half is replaced by the increasingly dark tone of a horror movie as it gradually swerves into "Purge" territory. There's a great DePalma-esque sequence that also seems to be a nod to Italian horror movies with a Dario Argento-style prowling camera mixed with red raincoat-clad potential victims that looks like something out of a Mario Bava film.

Unfortunately, it all concludes with an overly conventional and prevents this from being the truly subversive and disturbing movie that it could have been. Still, it has a great lead performance by Odessa Young and you probably won't see anything else quite like this movie for the rest of the year. It's the type of film that, as you're leaving the theater, you hear fellow audience members say, "What the fuck did I just see?"


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DaveNinja

Saw this last night. I thought it was one of the worst movies I've ever seen. The parts that weren't completely terrible were just boring and/or predictable. It was like something a high school kid would write.

Perkinsun Dzees

That's actually a compliment. Since the movie was narrated by and told from the viewpoint of a teenage girl, that means it did a good job of capturing her sensibility.

Brian T

Exactly. I'm glad somebody else noticed that, too. That sensibility -- and sensitivity -- also means the finished film doesn't talk down to or otherwise judge its teen characters. It's a pretty accurate reflection of reality up to a point, but obviously pushed to a fantasy (or is it?) level where the characters no longer feel compelled to suppress their worst instincts. Had it been made from a more "adult" point of view, however, I'm sure all the girls would die at the end in martyrdom/punishment for "their" sins.

Odessa Young briefly addresses this in the Q&A video I posted above, around the 10:05 min. mark, and Sam Levinson elaborates on it much further around 18:05; it's entirely intentional, and for me it captures the attitudes of contemporary teenaged girls more effectively than so many movies and supposedly "hip" TV series about "kids these days" wherein there's a very judgey, adult-minded, fear-driven "moral" being shoved down our throats ("Won't someone think of the children!" ). Of the two movies I saw at TIFF this year that most "felt" like they could've been written by high school kids -- this and The Predator -- this was by far the more thought-provoking piece, even if I still think it could've been finessed into something stronger (and in light of Levinson mentioning an earlier 4-hour cut [yeesh!], I'm sure such a movie could still be built for DVD or streaming. I'm certainly stoked to see some deleted scenes, at the very least).

I thought The Verge summed up the film rather succinctly in a (no, not entirely positive) semi-review piece written after the film's Sundance premiere last February:

It's all there. And I doubt an actual teenager could've articulated it even as well as it was in the finished product, even if Levinson clearly struggled to cram it all in there.

Again, Assassination Nation could've been better for sure, but it's part of a growing number of horror/genre pictures that smartly reflect and comment upon the increasingly ugly society we now live in. I'll take that over another generic slasher/zombie/ghost movie any day.

DaveNinja

I thought the rolling stone review of it was pretty accurate (there are spoilers, tho): https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/...review-725053/

but i think they gave it two stars too many.

Brian T

Wow, Fear always comes off as one of the smuggest anti-hipsters in the room with his would-be-withering pre-emptive strikes against anyone else who might "get" stuff in the films he reviews -- he's just so beyond cool -- but I suppose it wasn't one of the worst movies he's ever seen, at least.

His self-satisfied LE CORBEAU reference just makes him more annoying than the pop-culture-savvy characters he finds so annoying in the movie (and any pop-culture-savvy person who watches it, by his measure), and then he gets the Japanese film reference wrong (5 points for me, apparently). Umm . . . LOL! LOL! Mind you, that pales in comparison to his fanboy gushing over the "experience" of seeing the midnight premiere of HALLOWEEN at TIFF, which innowaywhatsoever colored his review of that film, even though the TIFF reception to both films was virtually the same, including the standing ovations (and all of which is largely irrelevant because . . . it's a film festival!)

Fear and too many critics of a certain age seem to relish pointing out all the references in order to ironically mock anyone else who notices them and, in their minds, spoil the need for younger viewers to discover their sources, but whatever. At least in this case, he's not entirely wrong on some of his other points, although I'd bump the rating to 3/5.

melasnus

This very topical movie really exceeded my expectations...in a good way.
Was not expecting this to be a real gem of originality.
Very smart writing and decent acting.
It's a movie I can see more than once.

Daytripper

Agree. Saw this for the first time last week. Thought it was great!

dex14

Glad to see some more people checking this out.

Daytripper

I told all my friends to watch it. Was really impressed with the script and acting.

RichC2

I felt like it was aggravatingly over the top and heavy handed for a good chunk of the runtime, but it was uniquely interesting and the hunt portion was extremely effective.

DaveNinja

I still consider this the worst movie I saw in 2018

Why So Blu?

I redBoxed the DVD and am sort of glad I missed it in theaters. It's a bit of a mess. Even our "protagonists" are quite unlikable that when the shit did start hitting the fan I really didn't care. Props for the uber violence, though.

Abob Teff

Caught this on Hulu ... Like some others, I was a bit put off initially but once it started rolling I was more on board.

Why So Blu that is the point. Yes, it is hard to relate to a movie that doesn’t beat us over the head with “Here is who you are to root for!” However I don’t see anybody harping over that in a Nightmare on Elm Street film or a Friday the 13th. In Assassination Nation, the point was that nobody in the film is pure. It is a modern day retelling of the Sale Witch Trials in a Mean Girls era.