Katheryn Bigelow's latest thriller, "A House of Dynamite," is one of the most frustrating films I've ever watched, and I strongly suspect that this is the point. The subject matter is the stuff of typical thrillers and action films, where a nuclear missile is discovered inbound for the continental United States, and those in charge only have minutes to deal with it. However, this is not one of those universes where everything works like clockwork, and all the systems created to handle this situation function as intended. Instead, the message here seems to be that if a nuke ever really was launched at the US, the response would be chaotic and insufficient, and the decisionmakers would be woefully unprepared. The movie is good, but deeply unnerving and purposefully doesn't follow the rules of a typically Hollywood thriller. The ending in particular is going to make a lot of people very upset.
Past this point, I'm going to spoil the whole movie, because the structure of the piece is important to any analysis of what it's doing. Also, knowing what's going to happen may better help set expectations. The actual missile crisis in "A House of Dynamite" only lasts for roughly fifteen minutes, and it's replayed three times from different points of view. First, we see it unfold from the White House Situation Room, being run by Captain Olivia Walker (Rebecca Ferguson). Then, we follow the Deputy National Security Advisor, Jake Bearington (Gabriel Basso), who is trying to provide advice to the decisionmakers. Finally, we follow the President of the United States (Idris Elba), as he gathers information to decide what the US response should be. There are additional POVs from the Secretary of Defence (Jared Harris), the First Lady (Renée Elise Goldberry), the commander of a US military base (Anthony Ramos), the commander of STRATCOM (Tracy Letts), an NSA expert on North Korea (Greta Lee), the military aide in change of the nuclear football (Jonah Hauer-King), and others.
Because the situation unfolds so fast, there's no time to cover all of these different characters' experiences in a single narrative, which I believe is the main reason for the repetition. Also, having that structure in place, where we already understand what the outcome is going to be after the first run-through, makes the audience more aware of the futility of some of the characters' actions, and how small delays and technological snafus can have a massive impact. Every single character is caught off guard by the crisis, and everyone reacts in very human ways to what they consider an unthinkable scenario. A significant amount of time is wasted dealing with simple communications issues. Bearington is on his way to work, and we watch him clumsily try to hold a video call while walking through city streets and navigating a security checkpoint. The President is in the middle of a youth basketball meet-and-greet when he learns about the situation. Greta Lee's character, amusingly, is watching a Battle of Gettysburg reenactment with her young son. Everyone seems to be in a state of shock as they watch the events unfold, often asking if something is really happening, or if anyone knows what's going on.
Written by Noah Oppenheim, a former broadcast news producer, "A House of Dynamite," offers a degree of realism that I appreciate seeing onscreen. The security provided by our armed forces and military hardware is largely an illusion when it comes to a nuclear doomsday scenario like this one, and I like that Bigelow isn't afraid to show us the ugly truth of mutually assured destruction strategies up close and personal. Some of the people in charge stay calm and collected. Others disintegrate. This film fits right into the genre of anti-nuclear proliferation films that were common in the 1980s, and since the nukes might be making a comeback, it's fitting that the films warning us about nuclear war should be back too.
The performances are great, a few questionable accents notwithstanding, though only a handful of characters are onscreen long enough to give us more nuanced portraits of the people involved. Idris Elba stands out as a President having a bad day that turns into a much worse one, admitting that he's unprepared when the time comes to make the big decisions. I like that Bigelow includes several brief moments with characters like a Secret Service agent played by Brian Tee, and a FEMA official based in Chicago played by Moses Ingram, to give us more reactions from those on the periphery.
Because the treatment of the material is so unorthodox, I expect that "A House of Dynamite" is not going to get much traction with audiences. However, its unusual candidness will keep it in the conversation whenever anyone tries to make a similar film in the future. I certainly won't ever look at a typical "launch the missiles" scene the same way again.
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