Assassination Nation seems to be a film that suffers from an identity crisis. It cobbles together a bunch of other ideas into a message that attempts to be anti-misogynistic, but comes across as trite and confused. It is a dark comedy that looks at a community that slips into anarchy as a hacker wreaks havoc on the secret lives of its denizens.
Lily (Odessa Young) is a typical teen. She spends far too much time on her smart phone, she is part of her own clique at school and she finds high school to be stifling. She spends much of her time with her close circle of friends, Bex (Hari Nef), Sarah (Suki Waterhouse) and Em (Abra). When a hacker begins targeting her town, Salem, residents begin to turn on each other. Eventually, the hacking is blamed on Lily, who becomes a target of angry vigilantes. Lily and her friends must unite to fight the onslaught of angry white men. Carnage ensues.
I get the whole hashtag metoo movement. In fact, it started as a non-partisan movement before it was hijacked by the left and turned into a political truncheon. Assassination Nation attempts to be a dark comedy with a social subtext. But the subtext becomes lost in the mixed metaphors and confusing imagery of the film. Creating a bogeyman is not easy. And when the bogeyman is meant to be everyone male, it creates flat characters, weak dialogue and poor foundation for storytelling. I wanted to like this film, but the story was predictable and sloppy. It was filled with stereotypes that didn't always ring true. It is filled with the typical high school fare of jocks, cheerleaders, nerds, etc. The pacing was decent, salvaging a bit of value from an otherwise choppy and disconnected story.
The striking thing about Assassination Nation was its attempt to be original while borrowing everything (to include the kitchen sink) from other places. The setting, Salem, is not so-subtle reference to the Salem Witch Trials. The witches, in this case, being Lily and her friends. While there is never any Salem-like trials, it offers the pretext for the violent rampage. The girls are set up by another local teen, creating a convenient target for the angry male mob. The visual imagery borrowed heavily from The Purge while interjecting a right-wing flavor into the antifa-like tactics. I hate to break it to Sam Levinson, but the real fascists in today's America call themselves anti-fascist. Their tactics betray their name. It is an irony that is lost on today's media, to include this film, who attempts to put the shoe on the other foot. But it doesn't fit. The results is confusing imagery that contradicts itself. The film ends up becoming lost in its own self-righteous vendetta, losing sight of its own objectives. The format would be more effective if it better developed the characters and added some dimension to the story. Instead, it comes across as flat, twisted and unimaginative.
Assassination Nation opens with a massive "Trigger Warning." It warns about sex, violence, blood, gore, toxic masculinity, etc. etc. etc. I lost count of the warnings, but there were several. Enough that it comes as no surprise that the MPAA gave this film an R rating. The interesting thing here, is that this is an anti-misogynist film written and directed by a man. There was quite a bit of sexuality and talk about sex, yet there is no nudity. I think that may have to do with the box that Levinson created for himself. Nudity can be exploitive and misogynist. It was an interesting choice. My reasoning is that Levinson was toeing the politically correct line so as to avoid making his film any more hypocritical than it already was. The film has drug and alcohol use, teen sex, teen sexuality and copious amounts of blood and gore. The rating has quite a bit to do with the adult themes and everything to do with the violence. This film is tripe and I wouldn't recommend it. But I will give an age recommendation of teens or better. The run time is one hour, 48 minutes.
I wanted to like Assassination Nation. Dark comedies, done well, can be awesome. This film was a choppy mess of mixed ideas. Levinson tried to heavily incorporate social media, which wasn't done well. There were times the split screen was simply too much. He wanted to draw imagery from protests and the Salem witch trials in order to create an indictment of American culture. Particularly male culture. While there may be some toxic masculinity in America, I would argue that America's men are become less masculine and not more. It is possible to be masculine without being misogynist, which this film seems to struggle with accepting. The imagery is confusing, the characters are flat and the story is predictable. It is choppy mix of half-baked ideas thrown together into a fast-paced, bloody mess. Not recommended. 4.5/10.
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