Controversial films get pushed back or even blacklisted all the time and if I'm being quite honest, I have yet to see one from our modern culture that has ever lived up to its supposedly notorious reputation. The Hunt is no exception and I really do not believe the substance of this film warrants this kind of discussion. While the film itself is very politically charged and unbelievably gory, too much of it felt on-the-nose to be genuine storytelling. There were a lot of parts throughout this film that I felt were very forced just for the sake of controversy and I personally do not appreciate that very much in terms of writing. Pissing off traditional conservatives and pissing off entitled liberals is what these writers definitely had in mind and while they achieved that, plots like these are just hard to fully get on board with. Luckily, the performance from the lead protagonist and the absolute hilarity and entertainment value that stems from its premise is enough to make this a decently enjoyable watch. And one thing for certain, though: absolutely no one is safe from being offended by the content of this film.
Waking up in a desolate field with nothing but gags in their mouths, a group of strangers soon realize that they have been chosen for The Hunt - an annual tradition where elitist liberals gather a bunch of conservatives and hunt them for sport. Among them are Crystal (Betty Gilpin), Don (Wayne Duvall), and a young woman who seems to not know what's going on (Emma Roberts) and while they struggle to figure out what to do, they also find out that there might be a bigger reason behind what is happening to them. This premise itself for a film is enough to inspire people to talk about it, as absolutely nothing throughout this movie appears to be politically correct. While that element is definitely going to offend some, I thought it was at least a bold move. It was an interesting approach as to how Nick Cuse and Damon Lindelof's script discussed things such as political incorrectness and how they talked about our current culture of the media and who believes what. However, this film never really built up to any kind of concise message to tell its audience, but rather just resorts to screaming insults and utilizing cheesy dialogue. This turned the film into an ineffective social commentary on politics and instead of taking a stance in the middle of the field, telling its audience that it's okay to have different opinions as long as you are correctly informed, it just spends its entire runtime insulting people on both sides of the aisle. There are a lot of forced situations that make these characters reveal something about themselves that is also supposed to serve as a marker for all people with those same opinions but the writing never really got me to care about any of these characters in the first place. Craig Zobel's direction did not entirely help with that either and while I might not have been completely on board with the way that he tries to get his attempted message across, I at least found this film to be entertaining.
Although The Hunt revealed itself to be a lackluster, political, mess, there is a lot of fun to be had with its action sequences and some terrific choices with its storytelling that I was definitely not expecting. The direction from Zobel throws the audience in so many different directions and many of the twists that he included were so far left-field that I never would have expected. For starters, there is a pretty good handful of big names in this film and while I was not expecting Betty Gilpin's Crystal to end up being the lead, I was genuinely taken aback by how quickly Zobel kills off some of these big names. It is such a misleading thing to market this film as being led by these well-known performers and then almost immediately kill a majority of them off but I definitely appreciate how Zobel had the courage to do that and shift his audience's attention to what might happen next. For only having a 90-minute runtime, this film wastes no time telling its story and getting on with the plot and I genuinely enjoyed that about it. The reveal of Hilary Swank as Athena, the antagonist of the film, was also fantastic. While typically cast in much more positive roles, she was perfect for embodying the goody-two-shoes, pretentious liberal who acts like she is helping but is really just in it to prove something to herself. And that's not to say anything about who Swank is as a person, but rather she brought the perfect, reflexive energy to her character. Best of all, however, was the performance from Betty Gilpin as our protagonist. Her comedic timing and incredibly strong presence help her to steal every scene she occupies with every word that comes out of her mouth. Gilpin is such a subtly talented and powerful actress and she made her character so compelling despite the lack of background or reliable information.
The Hunt is an incredibly wild ride of a film that takes no prisoners but also fails to really get me to care in the first place. Even though there tried to be a message here, I could never really latch on due to the film's sheer absurdity and borderline bad dialogue. The way I see it, as long as one only goes into this film looking for an unapologetically bloody and thrilling good time, they will come out happier than ever and more than satisfied for their money.
My Rating: ★★★
No comments:
Post a Comment