The Hunt

“Depends on whether they're smart pretending to be idiots or idiots pretending to be smart.”

Filmology Rating: 3 out of 4

The Hunt as rightfully stated on the poster, it is the most talked about movie of the year that no one has actually seen. Until the film actually comes out and nobody sees it or talks about it.

Twelve "conservative" strangers wake up in a clearing. They don't know where they are, or how they got there. They don't know they've been chosen to be hunted by "the liberal elite." This film's history is actually about more interesting than the film itself. This film was slated to release last year, but a wave of outrage and several indirect tweets from President Trump pushed the release date back to the height of the coronavirus. How fortuitous. It's funny that Trump likes to criticize films he hasn't seen, though.

Ever since the genesis of cinema itself, people have blamed movies for the world's problems. This is usually said by people who don't understand that there's a fine line between the movie world and the real world. Does everyone remember when 'Joker' came out and the result was positive reception from audiences and further discussion about the importance of mental healthcare?

For all its faults, it should be noted that 'The Hunt' is ambitious, but it's just so on-the-nose. It takes a greater filmmaker to execute this kind of material so that it doesn't come off as belittling to anybody who isn't that aware to satire in movies. Someone like Paul Verhoeven could pull off this kind of film without coming off as exploitative.

This kind of plotting isn't anything new either. It stretches back all the way to "The Most Dangerous Game" short story from 1924 that has spawned a myriad of films that use such premise like 'The Hunger Games.' However, 'The Hunt' uses a familiar premise to execute a quite decent film.

With all of the unoriginal plotting and all-to-obvious satire out of the way, the film is quite enjoyable. However, if you are unable to laugh at yourself, this may be a difficult film to sit through.

The most forefront elements that makes the film enjoyable are the performances and the filmmaking.

Betty Gilpin portrays the character of Crystal who is one of the hunted and she carries the entire film as someone who does not mess around. What was best about her performance is that she felt like she was having fun and Gilpin adds lots of subtleties to her character. By the end, she came off like the Bride from 'Kill Bill.' Every character for that matter has fun with their archetype characters that are meant to poke fun at far left and right personas. The main antagonist is not that great, though.

The issue with the main antagonist is that this individual is introduced an hour into this ninety minute film. So there is very little build-up to the main baddie.

While the film itself is entertaining and is quite subversive near the beginning, it stirs the pot for really no reason other than for the sake of stirring the pot. Craig Zobel doesn't have the subtlety to pull off the material, but his style is very pronounced to sometimes the point of crudeness.

Rating: See It

-Nolan