Kathryn Bigelow‘s fresh film A House Of Dynamite might not fall into the horror movie genre, but it
Kathryn Bigelow‘s fresh film A House Of Dynamite might not fall into the horror movie genre, but it might as well because it is more frightening than any of them.
The Oscar-winning director and producer of 2008 Best Picture winner The Hurt Locker and 2012 Best Picture nominee Zero Dark Thirty among others is back with with her first feature since Detroit eight years ago, and she hasn’t lost her mojo if this nail-biting thriller is any indication. The Netflix movie had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on Tuesday, and let’s just hope the world takes notice because this explosive story is scary in many ways, but mostly because it is so completely plausible in the powder keg of a planet on which we currently exist — so plausible that the question it raises isn’t if it could happen, but rather when. That is how close mankind might be to blowing itself up if warnings like this exceptionally powerful and brilliantly directed movie’s message isn’t heeded. A House of Dynamite is a wake-up call, a cool shower, a reckoning, and one hell of a motion picture achievement.
So what is it about?
With a script by Noah Oppenheim who comes to movies with a past resume as NBC News president and other real-world journalist credits in addition to his current role as screenwriter-producer, the premise is straightforward: When a sole missile is launched at the United States, a race against time begins to determine who is responsible and how to respond as the clock is ticking and there are less than 20 minutes before it hits its target.
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The film, which does not give you anywhere near that time in which to breathe, is divided into three sections, each offering a unique and different point of view of this event. The first is in the White House Situation Room where business is normal, everyday activities taking place, when this mysterious occurrence starts to get the blood racing and the gigantic screens reveal an unexplained missile seemingly heading for somewhere in the U.S. Midwest. At first it is not clear just what the target is — possibly Cleveland, possibly another city — but soon it is determined to be aiming straight for Chicago. We start to see the concern of those in the room including Maj. Daniel Gonzalez (Anthony Ramos), who seems disturbed, even as Adm. Mark Miller (Jason Clarke) is a frigid head treating it with optimism that it is not as bad as it appears, that all should be fine. They can just shoot it down and stop its path. Or can they? The key person focused on here is Capt. Olivia Walker (Rebecca Ferguson), who increasingly feels the heat, going higher up the ladder right until she has to get the President on the phone. Things are getting solemn, but the unthinkable? The attempt to shoot it down proceeds.
The second part of the movie is set at STRATCOM and the clock is set back to the beginning, this time primarily from the point of view of the generals and those who will be on the front line in determining what action to take if it can’t be shot down, and to quickly determine if it is indeed an enemy attack, But from where? As time passes, the Russians deny any involvement. Could be it the Chinese? The North Koreans? A cyber mistake? No one knows, but the risk in doing nothing means a guaranteed 10 million people incinerated in seconds once the missile hits Chicago. At the center of this section is Gen. Anthony Brady (Tracy Letts), who is the one who must act on the order of POTUS and choose how to respond, but against who? If this is a Pearl Harbor-style surprise attack we have to strike back, but it could mean escalating to complete oblivion with the wrong decision. Brody is looking at the clock and urging action to cripple the enemy’s ability to do anything else. The nervous juvenile Deputy National Security Advisor Jake Baerington (Gabriel Basso) is pulled from the car he is in with his wife (Brittany O’Grady) and quickly brought in to deliver an instant assessment.
The third and final part focuses on the President (Idris Elba), who as the clock turns back again is making an appearance at a basketball game. Fun times, until he is urgently ushered out and put back on Marine One helicopter as the events are explained to him, the options he has. POTUS is skeptical and wonders what all this angst coming from the White House and the generals is all about. He is accompanied by the straightforward Lt. Cmdr. Robert Reeves (Jonah Hauer-King), who is by his side laying out some very hard options. Meanwhile, the Defense Secretary (Jared Harris) who has been downplaying this event is feeling the pressure, and carries the burden that his daughter (Kaitlyn Dever) is in Chicago.
The three-act structure really pays off here as conversations and characters we see first-hand, are then again heard in later acts through the phone and other methods, and the puzzle of all these players is slowly pieced together. It really is a sharp approach, a different take that just realistically shows how this could go. Bigelow is one for authenticity, and in fact also directed 2002’s nuclear sub thriller, K-19: The Widowmaker, which similarly dealt with a ticking time bomb scenario in its own way. The filmmaker is clearly fascinated with this arena, but with A House of Dynamite you can feel the urgency that she sees this as more than just an entertaining movie, but one that has a purpose to wake up the world to the fact that “normalization” of a nuclear war and increasingly common saber rattling with the fate of us all on the line is something we cannot afford.
In some ways the message here goes back years during the Cold War, when films like Sidney Lumet’s sober Fail Safe and Stanley Kubrick’s satirical Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb came a couple of years after the Cuban Missile Crisis when we were on the brink. Neither had a content ending. But maybe I am most reminded of Stanley Kramer’s 1959 On the Beach that ended with the last gasp of humanity in an empty Australian town after the nuclear fallout has passed through. All that is left is a hopeful banner blowing in the wind: “There is still time brother.”
For this film, Bigelow has reunited with her Hurt Locker and Detroit DP Barry Ackroyd, and her Zero Dark Thirty production designer Jeremy Hindle for a keen and crisp visual feel that serves the story without getting in the way of it. Editor Kirk Baxter’s cutting is precise and paced increasingly as events grow more dire. Paul N. J. Ottosson’s sound design is exceptional, skillfully weaving in all the recurring elements as the film progresses. The ensemble cast is well appointed with Ferguson, Elba, Harris and especially a terrific Letts commanding their screen time.
To say this is an significant film for our time is an understatement. Hopefully the current world leaders who have our fate in their hands are listening. “There is still time brother” indeed.
Producers are Bigelow, Oppenheim and Greg Shapiro.
Title: A House of Dynamite
Festival: Venice (Competition)
Distributor: Netflix
Release date: Friday, October 3 (UK); Friday, October 10 (global theatrical); October 24 (streaming)
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Screenwriter: Noah Oppenheim
Cast: Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Gabriel Basso, Jared Harris, Tracy Letts, Anthony Ramos, Moses Ingram, Jonah Hauer-King, Greta Lee, Jason Clarke, Malachi Beasley, Brian Tee, Brittany O’Grady, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Willa Fitzgerald, Renee Elise Goldsberry, Kyle Allen, Kaitlyn Dever
Rating: R
Running time: 1 hr 52 mins
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