The Hunt Review (3/20/2020)

Before the Covid-19 quarantine started, I was supposed to go and see Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always, an already award-winning neo-realist drama that's been lighting up film festivals left and right, from Sundance to the Berlinale. Instead, I had to stay at home and stream The Hunt for this week's review, so bear with me while I take out all of my frustrations on what is surely to be one of the most vapid and useless films of 2020.

The Hunt is a new adaptation of the classic short story The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell. In this update, director Craig Zobel and writers Damon Lindelof and Nick Cuse re-imagine the story as a sort of literal political battle royale, where "liberal elites" capture a bunch of "deplorables" and ship them off to a manor to be picked off one by one. It aims to skewer the growing divide between left and right in this country, but only ends up skewering the concept of satire itself, undoing much of the progress films like 2018's Sorry to Bother You and 2019's Parasite did to restore the genre.

In order to be an effective satire, a film needs two things; one, a clear and identifiable target, and two, a point to be made about said target. Satire exaggerates its target to ridiculous and often (but not always) comedic extents in order to make clear some sort of perceived truth about it. The Hunt lacks the former and only grasps at the latter, taking aim at everything and everyone on the political spectrum so broadly and shallowly that it really fails to pinpoint any clear target altogether, while only grasping at vague notions of "both sides are crazy" centrism.

The Hunt also lacks any relatable characters the audience can identify with, providing no effective grounding point for the satire to build a foundation in a recognizable reality. The conservatives in the movie are represented by ridiculous MAGA-touting conspiracy vloggers that only exist on the fringe corners of the internet, and the liberals are spineless wealthy "elites" that only seem to exist to parrot talking points and only ever show up in real life to fund a presidential democratic campaign every four years and then disappear back into the woodwork. It's true that these archetypes are certainly recognizable, but they've already been skewered to death by the internet's endless culture war, and The Hunt brings zero new insights to the table that might reflect on this war in any meaningful way.

It's worth mentioning that the film does show a middle ground in its main character, who I guess is somewhat more grounded and relatable than the rest of the caricatures, but in a movie filled with unrelatable strawmen, that's really not hard. Compared to the rest of The Hunt's insufferable cast, our protagonist (played by Betty Gilpin in admittedly fairly good performance that's unfairly bogged down by awful writing) has almost no personality at all. She's cast as the "normal, relatable American" who got caught up in this ridiculous brawl between people she doesn't care about. She doesn't really care about anything, though; she never has any backstory, never shows any interest in anything, and openly shows a disinterest in anything that doesn't directly involve her. She's painfully, ridiculously boring, and is such a non-character in almost every way except for the fact that she can kick ass (she may have also been in the army? It's kind of implied but never expanded upon in any meaningful way).

By centering her in between both of the ridiculous political factions, Zobel, Lindelof and Cuse seem to be making a point about how the normal everyman in America is caught between two squabbling factions while they are just trying to mind their own business. It seems to suggest that this is actually the preferred way to be. There are plenty of people like this, for sure, but the idea that politics has no bearing on the actual lives of the American people is utterly ridiculous, and an insultingly privileged position to uphold. There are people on both sides who are - often literally - playing with their lives on the line, and the divide in our country comes from a very real, deep seated unrest that cannot be fixed by just shutting up about it. The Hunt lacks any political convictions whatsoever save for the idea that having them is bad, and because of this, in an ideal world, it wouldn't resonate at all whatsoever.

Except, somehow, it's become one of the most controversial films of the year. Ever since it was infamously delayed after President Donald Trump tweeted about it in a rage, its been twisting itself into a self-appointed position of a dangerous, controversial statement. This makes the film's sense of smug self-satisfaction all the more insufferable; it's so proud of itself for having no opinion on anything and it's being rewarded for it. It's saying almost nothing, yet somehow it's tricked people into thinking it's this dangerous vision. I guarantee you at the end of the year most people will have forgotten about this movie entirely, but right now it's getting so much attention that it doesn't deserve.

Politics aside, it's not even that good of a movie. It's poorly paced and haphazardly structured, with no interesting or likeable characters to root for, and therefore no stakes when it comes to whether or not they'll survive the film. That doesn't even matter that much anyway because most of the cast is killed off in the first twenty minutes. Its cinematography and direction is pedestrian and bland, and its so unfunny despite its best efforts that it somehow wraps itself around into being funny for all the wrong reasons. There's some decent gore effects, but if that's what you're looking for your much better off checking out something like Color Out of Space - which is also available to stream on Amazon Prime.

Overall, The Hunt is the equivalent of the spoiled child who throws a tantrum for attention and gets it. It's reveling it is own sense of edginess and superiority while it actually has none of those things. It's a bad thriller and an even worse satire with nothing insightful or interesting to say, and I can only hope that the controversy dies down quickly once people watch it and realize there's almost nothing here to back up its reputation. A movie like this needs to be ignored over anything else, and with all luck it will be.