London Film Festival 2018: 'Assassination Nation' Film Review

Data Whining...

Assassination Nation is a distinctly confusing film. It's both relevant and unnecessary. It's enjoyable and yet disgustingly uncomfortable to watch. It's progressive and yet it rests on such obviously outdated tropes. Simply put, I think it's not as clever of a film as it makes out to be

Minor Spoilers for the film's first act follow...

The film focuses around Lily and her three friends (pictured above). The gang live in Salem (*because spooky*) and live a decidedly normal life in high school - that is until the town Mayor's phone gets hacked. Thanks to the 'ingenuity' of a fellow high school student, intimate photos of the Mayor in feminine lingerie are made public - as are his dealings with male escorts. Devastated by shame and the ferocity of his townsfolk, the Mayor takes his own life during a press conference later that day.

The high school principle is the next to be hacked, and in round three, fifty percent of Salem finds their data has been made public. Every message, every phone call, every location you've been to, every photo, every web search you've ever made...accessible to everyone. Even to a Saint the invasion of privacy would be disturbing, and the residents of Salem are anything but devout. 

Assassination Nation certainly raises valid and challenging questions about today's society, but it doesn't appear to want to provide an answer to them. Instead, it feels like genuinely real and pressing issues are used purely as a tool to get to the bloody carnage and thrills of the third act.

The main point the film tries to make is about the toxicity of social media's mob mentality. There has been an undeniable shift in the zeitgeist. Social media users tend to act hypocritically righteous online despite themselves being wholly imperfect.

Take the film's example of the Mayor. Sure, a politician should step down if found hiring escorts, but is physically violent outrage justified? Did he deserve to die? And why do the townsfolk revolt with so much disgust when they themselves are just as multifaceted and flawed? It's this empathetic stance that the film's leads adopt - a nuance that I suppose the film wanted to promote. The plot, though, eventually descends into such madness that this message is simply cut short.

Writer/Director Sam Levinson doesn't just try to comment on social media outrage, though. 

Violent transphobia, sexual grooming, sexual morality, toxic masculinity, sex-positivity, homophobia in sports, celebrity culture, police corruption, online over-sharing and data hacking are all brought into the conversation. When there's so much to talk about, though, none of these issues gets nearly enough development. Assassination Nation tends to feel more like a checklist than an essay - and a really scribbly one at that. 

It's not all bad though, not by any means. It honestly gets to a point where you just can't help but praise the film for its ambition. You'll also notice that the cinematography and directional choices are really beautiful at times, as is Levinson's use of colour. The costume design, too, is superb - especially within the third act.

There's someone else I also have to mention. Hari Nef is astounding in the film in the role of Bex, one of Lily's friends. The transgender actress gets to authentically and comfortably play a trans character on screen who isn't stuck in the tropey 'coming-out' storyline. While Bex is used to comment on wider trans issues on screen the character never feels disrespected or wasted, and one of her scenes in particular made me cry.

The main four girls as a group also had great chemistry on screen. The film shines most during it's quieter and more reflective moments, moments in which the four girls can just...chill. In some ways, I'd rather have seen those relationships in a well written, high school dramedy than in the clusterfuck we got here.

Okay, I'm aware I'm sounding super hard on this film. I actually enjoyed watching it. I thought the action was well shot, the atmosphere it created was genuinely terrifying and the aforementioned cinematography made the grizzly plot itself much easier to digest. 

It's just unrelentingly dark. You're asked as an audience member to emotionally invest in so many harrowing social issues but then they're never properly addressed. That weight is never lifted. And sure, you could argue that the reason behind this is to get audiences outraged into pushing for social change, but in a film about the dangers of outrage that doesn't quite add up. 

As I said earlier, it seems like this film thinks it's smarter than it is. 

Now, if you like your movies unrelentingly dark or if you really enjoyed the 'Black Museum' episode of Black Mirror, Assassination Nation is definitely worth your time. I don't mean that as an insult to the film either, I just personally don't tend to love such cripplingly bleak material. In all honestly, I genuinely can't wait to see what Levinson comes up with next. He directed this film wonderfully, it's just the script I can't quite get behind. 

Now, don't mind me but I'm gonna watch something a bit more uplifting. Tangled anyone?

Assassination Nation will be released in the UK on the 23rd November, 2018.

⭐⭐⭐

Written by James Green