Kathryn Bigelow’s “A House of Dynamite” is so intense that I was compelled to keep watching, but it’s also a contrived movie that I didn’t think twice about once it ended.
Bigelow’s film mostly works in the moment, has some fine performances and has been made with skill. However, coming from one of my favorite filmmakers, whose works are typically tough as nails and unforgettable, I was surprised by how quickly it passed from my mind after watching it.
It begins on a day like any other, as we see a variety of characters starting their morning routines and going through security checks in various government and military buildings. Reports of a missile launch, with a nuke on the way to Chicago, begin with optimism that it can be controlled.
Then the giant Defcon sign keeps lowering its numbers, the U.S. President is pulled away from a photo op and everyone is frantically calling their loved ones with instructions to drop everything and leave.
This plays like a Roland Emmerich disaster film, with cliched characters and one-note set-ups, escalating into situation room panic. Whereas Emmerich would eventually reward his audience with spectacle, Bigelow offers none whatsoever.
This is a depiction of an environment of existential dread and not much more than that. I was surprised to discover this is based on a screenplay by Noah Oppenheim and not a stage play, which is what it resembles the most.
Even Bigelow’s lesser films look amazing, but her exceptional eye for visual composition is dialed down here.
Filmmakers tend to gravitate to more mature material later in life, but I missed the wildness of “Point Break” (1991), where Bigelow took a B-movie screenplay and made it gripping and downright mythic. Ditto, my favorite of her works, “Strange Days” (1995).
Nothing here comes close to matching Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove, Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” (1964). Kubrick’s film came out 61 years ago, but it’s the far more entertaining, unsettling and well-rounded vision of a nuclear apocalypse.
So is either version of “Fail-Safe” (Sidney Lumet’s 1964 original or the 2000 TV movie).
The actors in Bigelow’s film admirably never give into histrionics, but the dialogue often sounds written and trailer-ready (“There is no plan B”). Tracy Letts steals it as a seen-it-all General and is visibly having the most fun. Idris Elba has some strong moments as an Obama-like president finding himself cornered and, after a strong start, Rebecca Ferguson exits the movie.
The shuffling movie stars in supporting roles is yet another factor that made me think I was watching a movie from the director of “Godzilla” (1998), not “Near Dark” (1986). Note how Greta Lee, a terrific actress, is required here to literally phone in her cameo appearance or how Jason Clarke walks around the set, adding to the tension and spouting more “this-is-the-moment” dialogue.
I kept waiting for the big reveal that the Vice President is played by Jeff Goldblum (no such luck).
The decision to show the same scenario three times, from three different vantage points, doesn’t elevate the drama and only makes it an exercise in redundancy. What worked for Akira Kurosawa’s “Rashomon” (1950) doesn’t connect in the same way here.
FAST FACT: Kathryn Bigelow got handed a crush of teen comedy scripts to direct after her feature debut “The Loveless,” so she spent time teaching before resuming her career with 1987’s “Near Dark.”
“A House of Dynamite” has the tenacity to state that Chicago is in grave danger (I’m sure those in the Windy City will despise this movie) but the film doesn’t really deliver on the threat. Here’s why Bigelow should have gone all the way and actually shown the potential catastrophe the characters are trying to avoid: it heightens the stakes as a cautionary tale.
“Deep Impact” (1998) and “2012” (2009) are trash but, so help me, I was invested in them. I recognize the serious intent at work here, but I’ve seen it all before.
Another problem might be that I’m Gen-Z and grew up with “The Day After” (1983) and “Testament” (also 1983), both of which scared the hell out of me. Those films, the former a highly touted TV movie and the latter a theatrical release, were devastating.
Adam McKay’s smug, overlong and mostly insufferable “Don’t Look Up” (2021) at least provided third act spectacle that had the chutzpah to give an acid punchline after two hours of pontificating. In contrast, Bigelow’s film comes across like every Jerry Bruckheimer or Tom Clancy movie about a stolen, missing or newly discovered nuclear missile, but minus the action, spectacle and lingering resonance.
Yes, the movie will put you on edge, but so does waiting in line at Starbucks.
View this post on Instagram
What should have been a slam-dunk comeback for Bigelow is one of the great director’s lesser films and, after a brief, half-hearted theatrical window, it’s now more content on Netflix that will be buried alongside piles of unwatched movies in a never-ending queue.
Bigelow’s film is a weird one to write about, as the filmmaking and performances are strong. Once again, Bigelow can take a story with a large ensemble cast and give it immediacy, coherence and dramatic heft. This time, however, I left the film with a shrug, not only because this is far from the first end-of-the-world movie I’ve seen, but because the story doesn’t hit hard enough.
We don’t need movies to inform us that the world will end, nor do we need an illustration of how awful and foolish it is to place this kind of weapon in human hands.
Bigelow was once married to James Cameron, who made a little film called “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” (1991), which has a scene where a woman watches a playground full of small children go up in flames as a mushroom cloud touches down. As if “The Day After” hadn’t already traumatized me, here’s Cameron’s vision (remember, the scene is wordless) to remind us how devastating this scenario is.
Whether you grew up in the age of “duck and cover” or can still see those burning swing sets as clearly as I do in my mind’s eye, nothing in Bigelow’s film is this harrowing but should have been.
Bigelow’s “The Hurt Locker” (2008) and “Zero Dark Thirty” (2012) are razor sharp and will likely be her legacy, but don’t overlook “Blue Steel” (1990), “Strange Days” (1991) or “Point Break” (1991), the latter of which is one of the best action thrillers of the 1990s.
Giving the film two stars out of four sounds like I’m bashing it, which isn’t the case. The problem is, considering the talent and subject matter, it left me indifferent and that should not be the case.
Two Stars
The post ‘A House of Dynamite’ Never Ignites appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.