Far-fetched for the most part, but the final line of dialogue perfectly resonates with society's messed up relationship with social media and the internet.
I hated this movie. I hated it so much. I'm not going into detail, I just don't have the energy because I'd like to forget this movie as soon as I can. It's so crazy to see a movie so terrible be so preachy directly to the audience. But hey, I'm 34, and there were people in the audience who were laughing and even clapping at some parts that I was rolling my eyes at, so maybe it's just not for me.
An overindulgent mess of a film, 'satire' as blunt as a brick to the face. Lazy writing. Steer clear of this pretentious mess
What a tarrific movie. Again one of this lucky moments at the sneak preview - I hadn't heard of this movie before, hadn't seen any trailers, previews, reviews - it would have totally passed by me. This is director Sam Levinson's second movie as a director and in it he tells ports the story of Salem (the biggest witch hunt in the history of the USA) into the modern times and retells it as a story under high school teenagers who live an excessive live on social networks, in a society that still sexualizes women, discriminates against the different and stigmatizes those who do what everybody does in secret but get outed publicly. In this tinderbox of a society a hacker is doing his mischief by stealing private data from our teenagers and also the adults surrounding them and publicly displaying them on the internet, which first only leads to mobbing of individuals and personal tragedies but soon the entire situation switches into a nightmare and a new kind of witch hunt.
The first thought I had when the credits of the movie rolled was "Wow". The dangers of social networks of information leaking and the effects this has both on individuals as well as the society in its entirety is not new (there is even a South Park episode on this regarding the browser history); yet how this movie handles it is refreshing. This movie is different - you get thrown into the story without any introduction, you are there with a group of girls hearing their ordinary daily dialogues (which is kind of Tarantinoesque) about every day's boring stuff, to introduce the characters and their way of thinking. We get great story telling and a really great camera work that captivates you right from the beginning. From all the main characters only Bill Skarsgard rings a bell, so I guess all of them are newcomers yet they all play very well. The sets, the scenes, the costumes the colors, everything is trimmed to create really stunning images that are combined with a great soundtrack. But best of all there is an incredibly great one-take dolly shot that is really stunning as well.
But what kind of movie are we actually watching? That is really hard to answer, actually. The movie starts quite heavy, only unfolds its story slowly and is packed with social criticism without being in your face. The first part reminded me of Spring Breakers. However, Assassination Nation is also packed with a morbid sense of humor while staying serious the entire time, becoming more and more a personal drama until it actually turns into a Gore movie that starts reminding you strongly of the movie "The Purge". And if that is not enough we get a finale that has a lot of elements of a classic Rape-Revenge-Movie that slowly drifts into the surreal.
As you can see, this movie is hard to explain and I feel that rather than reading about it, you'd really have to experience this movie yourself to get a picture of it. I myself was captivated for the first minute, I was really curious how this story will unfold, I have been thinking about the message or the messages that this movie probably tries to convey a lot, I was entertained by the gore elements and I had a couple of scenes where I had to laugh. All in all a well rounded movie, with only one critizism that I have: I thought the ending was pretty forseeable. Not too worse, but still.
Other than that, a really great movie! And everything is done on a low budget!
Btw. here is a great "Anatomy of a Scene" with commentary by Sam Levinson, published by The New York Times. Worth seeing, but also spoilery of course: https://youtu.be/VJNLmfyNpqk
A powerful testimony of resilience in the face of extremist misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, sexism and racism. A reflection of the chokehold social media has on all lives, and how quickly it can destroy all facades. Refreshing to see diverse representation of women in cast and character. And if you like bloodshed, well there's plenty of it. Somehow this film manages to have humor to lighten an otherwise very heavy plot. Extra bonus fierce HBCU marching band post-credits! Recommend it (watch with your girlfriends!)
Hokey, self-indulgent and preachy. It raises some excellent points and tries to shine a light on some real modern issues, but it gets bogged down by trying to be badass about it, that is hard not to laugh at it. What damns it the most though is its featuring (aside from Odessa Young) nothing but horrendously unlikeable people.
As some reviews point out, this movie is a demon spawn of movies like Heathers or The Purge. A very violent and gory portrait of social media frenzy with an ending phrase that pretty much sums up the whole point of the film. It really isn’t for everybody but if you stay for the thrills, you’re in for a really wild ride.
"It's the simple fact that you can't live by the rules you set, yet you still pretend."
Assassination Nation is that spastic girl at the party sitting off to the side, not making any friends but drawing attention to herself with her skimpy outfit, trash habits and dirty mouth. She's not someone you'd be proud take home but you will live every second you spend with her and want to see her again once she's gone.
Update of the history of Salem, hysteria and social hypocrisy, to the times of social networks and the use of mobile phones.
Let's put it this way I hope they make a sequel
Yes, this is a very obvious and "in your face" type of movie. But I think the reason why it is so on the nose and over the top, is because it's basically an analogy to a shitstorm or online "debate".
All the exaggerated stuff feels like people fighting online with posts and commemts. When you have that in mind while watching the film, I think it all starts to make sense.
I think sometimes it feels good, when a movie shouts out the truth, especially in such a pretty way.
A negative point: I don't think that it will change the mind of a lot of people regarding the problems pointed out in the movie, because it's so incredibly negative, and most people don't like being accused in entertainment in that manner probably.
But after all I enjoyed this movie a lot, mostly because of the concept and of course because of the incredibly hyper stylistic and very entertaining cinematography.
So yes, this film is like a very loud scream that lets your ears ring, but I really liked its voice. ;)
(even though it is very hard to watch sometimes)
This is an outstanding, superb movie that made my personal top ten list for 2018. Like other commenters have mentioned, it's somewhat difficult to describe. It's basically the Salem Witch Trials, but set in today's world with social media (rather than witch craft) being the corrupting influence. At points the movie feels very similar to the two Purge sequels, at other times it's almost a horror movie, and then there's a fair bit of gory and violent female revenge thrown in. Plus a fair amount of smart and timely social commentary.
I'm not sure what else to say without spoiling the experience for anyone - all I can say is I couldn't recommend this movie more highly. It's a fantastic piece of work. Some of the other reviews are a clear indication of the fact that it's apparently quite divisive, as some people seemed to hate it. I'm so far on the other side of that spectrum that I'm not sure we watched the same movie, as I loved every second of this.
Not exactly what I was expecting.
This movie is incredibly bad. I am really hard pressed to think of a movie which is more pretentious and contemptible than this one is.
Whoever wrote this film is chronically online and thinks people would act in real life like they act on Twitter.
Felt like if The Purge, Black Mirror: White Bear, and A Clockwork Orange had a hatechild. Albeit a far cry from any of the aforementioned, it still was good fun.
Kept wishing throughout that Maude Apatow had a larger role.
Not at all what i expected. You cut it in three parts the first two are boring but they build up for the gore pretentious totally PC and feministic third part. People who think her speech in front of the flag was correct and ok are those who live by the woke culture. The message passed was very wrong, women unprotected by mean men and now you will see what happens. Very disoriented and problematic.
A unique view for sure for something that will surprise you. Either good or bad.
Hilarious, disturbing, and unexpectedly intelligent (if you don't get too triggered)
Centred around a quartet of unapologetically (or perhaps unknowingly) shallow teen girls more concerned with getting likes on Instagram than decent grades, and culminating in an orgy of gender-demarcated violence, Assassination Nation is one of those films that seems to set out to try to offend everyone – from the social justice warriors on the left to the second amendment fetishisers on the right, from Millennial snowflakes who have never known life without social media to Baby boomers who just can't get their head around why going viral is so important. And pretty much everyone in between. The satirical ire of writer/director Sam Levinson's (son of Barry Levinson) second feature, however, is aimed more specifically at those who tend to see the proclivities of sexually "aggressive" (i.e., sexually confident) young women through misogyny-tinted glasses as the ruination of society (the type of insecure males who believe the term "toxic masculinity" is an oxymoron). Presumably inspired by the "Sukeban" [boss girl] phenomenon in Japan during the 70s and 80s, the film essentially depicts what might have happened if both the accused and the accusers during the Salem witch trials had had access to social media and assault rifles.
For my complete review, please visit: https://boxd.it/zr8nV
The last part of this movie is so bad compared to the really good first two ones
When the movie starts I initially thought 'oh no... is this going to be one of those woke gory movies with lots of unnecessary s*x' and I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised at how good and amusing this movie was.
It starts of with a trigger warning for a bunch of stuff but in hindsight it wasn't that graphic or nasty as some other movies that I've watched. There is a lot of s*x related stuff going on though so if you can't handle that... skip this.
Now that said I like how this movie tackles modern day technology and what it would do to our civilization when all your secrets get outed. That is of course if you are living in a town where a lot of secrets are being hidden and some even illegal secrets. I think what this movie does greatly is show how quickly people would turn on each other. How quickly we judge each other and how quickly things would escalate if you throw in a guns and other weapons... It depicts a gruesome image of how things could play out and yes it is all over the top but is it really? In a land like America where school shootings are what... another week in the life of? That's how we Europeans view it anyway.
The movie reminded me of the purge and almost feels like a prequel to how the Purge would come to be. Now in terms of characters... no great ones. Lily is very unlikable to me even at the end I feel no remorse for her whatsoever. Bex is the only one of the girls I was rooting for to be honest. The only one that has somewhat of a story beside Lily. The rest of the characters are all flat and there for the sake of... well... for the sake of there being characters to kill or shoot at I guess. It doesn't take away from the plot though.
I might be reading too much into it but for me this movie had depth and a definite meaning to it...
Extremely intense. Not for the faint of heart.
It's listed as an "action comedy", but it's pretty short on action, even shorter on comedy. The first hour is a total bore. I barely made it through this.
Much, much deeper and meaningful than it looks like at first glance. Yes it's brash, in-your-face and it pushes all the PC buttons, but this is a movie with heart and style.
Come for the lulz, and then ponder on our times.
Shout by Luke ErosVIP 8BlockedParent2022-06-04T00:38:01Z
This is so so sooooo BAD!!!