Movie Review: ‘A House of Dynamite’
Plot: A non-chronological account from three perspectives, Oscar winning director Kathryn Bigelow’s latest film examines a present day nuclear war scenario. When the United States’ early warning radar system detects an unidentified ICBM launch, the White House Situation Room, NORAD, and the Pentagon all scramble to respond appropriately. Among them are Captain Olivia Walker (Rebecca Ferguson), Secretary of Defense Reid Baker (Jared Harris), General Anthony Brady (Tracy Letts), Major Daniel Gonzalez (Anthony Ramos), and an unnamed President of the United States (Idris Elba). As the probability of impact and detonation changes from probable to certain, all parties much decide on the appropriate response. With limited options, that response may very well lead to a global nuclear war.
Review: As someone who just turned 47, something occurred to me while I was watching director Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite. Both my parents and myself grew up in the two decades (60s and 80s respectively), where the threat of global nuclear war was at its peak. Yet whereas my mother and father lived through the Cuban Missile Crisis, the closest I came to facing that reality was John Badham’s 1983 film WarGames. However, as human beings, while we intellectually know that the threat of nuclear war is possible (and in recent years more probable), it’s something we collectively compartmentalize. It’s a fear we bury deep in our subconscious. Yes the possibility is horrific, but I have to go grocery shopping and pay my electric bill. That may sound callous, yet in the face of nuclear apocalypse it makes for sound logic. The human mind can’t spend sixteen waking hours contemplating being vaporized by a nuclear blast or slowly dying from radioactive fallout.
With A House of Dynamite, director Kathryn Bigelow drags that fear out of our collective subconscious and lays it bear in the glaring light of a mushroom cloud. Propulsive, plausible, engaging, chilling, and thought-provoking, A House of Dynamite is a taut political thriller in the vein of Fail Safe and Threads. Backed by a dynamic screenplay from Noah Oppenheim that’s as tense as it is realistic, Bigelow’s latest simultaneously feels like a spiritual sequel to her earlier works Zero Dark Thirty and The Hurt Locker, with just a pinch of Near Dark. While it may sound strange to reference her classic vampire film in this instance, in many aspects A House of Dynamite unfolds like a horror film. As each minute passes the level of dread increases making this very probable scenario scarier than any ghastly ghoul WETA digital could conjure.
What makes A House of Dynamite resonate is the realistic depiction of a nuclear scenario coupled with very relatable, believable characters experiencing everyday human circumstances. Major Daniel Gonzalez begins his day being dumped by his significant other over the phone. Rebecca Ferguson’s Captain Walker breaks the news of the impending threat to her husband while he’s taking their daughter to the doctor. Anna Park (Greta Lee), the National Intelligence officer for North Korea is drawn into the mix during a Civil War re-enactment on her day off. Even the President discovers the incident in the middle of a charity basketball appearance for inner city youth. This all lends an air of verisimilitude, that balances out the serious actions taken at NORAD, the White House Situation Room, and aboard Marine One. The knowledge that all those daily tasks we take for granted are about to be irrevocably changed, heightens the stakes and ramps the tension to 11.
A House of Dynamite also succeeds in busting the myth that the United States’ missile defense system is infallible. As Deputy National Security Advisor Jake Baerington (Gabriel Basso) remarks, it’s like “hitting a bullet with a bullet.” While the Pentagon has refuted the film’s claims stating that their simulations have displayed a 100% accuracy rating over the last decade, well…it IS the Pentagon. That’s kind of what they have to say. Moreover, Oppenheim based this script on experts in the field including Senator Edward Markey, retired general Douglas Lute, journalists Tom Nichols and Fred Kaplan who’ve covered the issue for decades, and the American Physical Society, a non-partisan organization of physicists. If anything their input makes the events depicted in A House of Dynamite even more terrifying.
What separates A House of Dynamite from other political thrillers in the same vein is Bigelow and Oppenheim’s choice to present the same scenario from three different perspectives. The first, “Inclination is Flattening,” follows Captain Walker in the Situation Room. The second, “Hitting A Bullet With A Bullet,” deals with General Brady at STRATCOM and Baerington’s interactions with the Russian Foreign Minister. The last, “A House Filled With Dynamite” follows Idris Elba’s unnamed President as he weighs the impossible decision of whether to show restraint or take out all of the United States’ enemies. Each section does an excellent job of exploring the moral and ethical implications of nuclear war as well as the real life consequences. The result is a well rounded apolitical examination of the issue that feels somehow vibrant and personal but also cold and calculating. Oscar nominated cinematographer Barry Ackroyd captures my aforementioned elements with aplomb, even if he occasionally over-relies on closeups. It’s complimented by an intense if not always remarkable score from Volker Bertelmann.
As captivating and engrossing as A House of Dynamite is, the film does suffer from character development issues. This stems in large part because there are so many characters it’s hard to connect fully with any one of them. For example, the great Kaitlyn Dever shows up for a cup of coffee as Reid Baker’s estranged daughter. While the one scene she has with Jared Harris is emotionally devastating, someone of Dever’s caliber deserves better. Also at 112 minutes with credits, A House of Dynamite may be a little too brisk for its own good. Bigelow and company could easily have added another twenty minutes to this film and it wouldn’t have lost any of its propulsive energy.
Some viewers will undoubtedly take issue with the fact that the name of the attacking country is never revealed, but as A House of Dynamite proves, the ultimate culprit is irrelevant. The focus centers solely on the potential scenario and probable choices in the wake of a nuclear attack. From that standpoint A House of Dynamite succeeds. Audiences may also rail against the film’s ambiguous ending but when it comes to endings my perspective has always been to ask “Does it make sense in the context of the story?” For me the answer is yes but your mileage may vary.
Ultimately, A House of Dynamite‘s subject matter couples with Bigelow’s distinctive style to generate an explosive and dynamic film. Let’s hope the fallout results in conversations that steer humanity farther away from the brink than toward it.
My rating system:
1 God Awful Blind Yourself With Acid Bad
2 Straight Garbage
3 Bad
4 Sub Par
5 Average
6 Ok
7 Good
8 Great
9 Excellent
10 A Must See
Masterpiece
A House of Dynamite: 8/10
