Directed By Craig Zobel

Starring – Hillary Swank, Emma Roberts, Betty Gilpin

The Plot – Twelve 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 for a very specific purpose; The Hunt. In the shadow of a dark internet conspiracy theory, a group of globalist elites gathers for the very first time at a remote Manor House to hunt humans for sport. But the elites’ master plan is about to be derailed because one of the hunted, Crystal (Gilpin), knows The Hunters’ game better than they do. She turns the tables on the killers, picking them off, one by one, as she makes her way toward the mysterious woman (Swank) at the center of it all.

Rated R for strong bloody violence, and adult language throughout

POSITIVES

– Parallel world. Almost immediately, you notice something off-putting not only in the tonal capacity of the film, which maintains a diverse action comedy, but also in the role reversal of its two sides of the political spectrum, that creates many unique perspectives on becoming what these sides typically disdain. The left becomes the right, and vice versa, and it offers a portrayal by the cast that feels every bit therapeutic as it does beneficial to the story, for how the audience, based on political affiliation, will essentially side with their opposition, and see them in ways that they perhaps never have before; human. As someone who is an independent when it comes to political stances, I can say that it was refreshingly original to see a take that satirically bends each stereotype, and squashes the pre-conceived notions by audiences, which proves that anyone can be capable of such vitrol hatred and clouded ideals.

– Sharp-tongued humor. “The Hunt” is easily my early favorite for best comedy of 2020, and it attains this honor because no subject or taboo stratosphere seems off limits in a movie this absorbing of its real world counterpart. Not only was I gut-busting in laughter during the entirety of the movie, but the deliveries are directed in a way that garners the biggest reaction for the level of audacity that they are painted with. It gives each character plenty of valued screen time to shine, and with the coveted R-rating that other political satire films reach for, but can’t fully grasp, “The Hunt” takes no prisoners, and deconstructs both sides fruitfully in a way that proves no one is safe in a screenplay this revealing. Typically, if these kind of movies are one-sided, they aren’t as nourishing to me as an audience member, but since there’s an abundance of material in both sides to depict, the movie’s comedy never feels stale or even slightly repetitive because of this advantage.

– Endless surprises. This is an aspect that I definitely didn’t see coming, and neither did the talented ensemble cast, who are each offed in a way that materializes during the moments when they can be heard the loudest. The opening half hour of the movie is definitely the climax for me personally, for the way it reciprocates the “Game of Thrones” theory, where caring and investing in a particular character will get you nowhere, and this level of spontaneity allows us the audience to get lost in the truly unpredictable nature of the game that swallows its prey whole. But long after the game settles itself down, the movie maintains this level of unpredictability, which is gained by attacking the question “Why?”, and while the answer leaned towards what can be expected in a movie that only features two respective sides, it does speak volumes to the level of social commentary that springs from the age of the internet, which often gets the better of the people who inhabit it.

– Two above all. There are a few awesome cameos by Ethan Suplee, Ike Barinholtz, Glenn Howerton, and the always charming Reed Birney, to name a few, but this forefront of boisterous male characters would be nothing without the nuanced greatness of its two leading ladies that we indulge for entirely different reasons. The show-stealer is definitely Betty Gilpin, who feels like this generation’s Sarah Connor, for the way she continuously tackles adversity and character bullshit like it’s a gnat with a temporary disturbance on the way to the bigger mission. Gilpin’s unbothered reactions sell her stern deliveries in ways that not only illustrate the true grit of the character, but also feeds into this generation of self-entitled millennials who are often not phased by something so urgent, even if it’s taking place in front of them. Hilary Swank, though limited in screen time, is equally entrancing as the head of this game with her own cryptic reasons. Swank delights with a character who balances charm and wit simultaneously, and constructs an overall antagonist that affords Swank the chance to play against type while chewing up as much scenery as she can, and while the actress has had many academy-praised performances, her work here feels fresher than anything she has done in over a decade.

– Carnage candy. Where the film earns its hard-R rating is in the many visual sight gags involving special effects practical and computer generated, that intentionally or unintentionally pay homage to Quentin Tarantino’s almost cartoonish side of violence. Everything here is presented so over-the-top and gleeful that you can’t help but get lost in its charms, and give into the devilish side that makes all of this humorous for how grand scale something small progresses from. The kills themselves are nothing creative in terms of how the gag is drawn-up, but it’s the ruthless permanency of their aftershocks that truly rivet the screen that captures them, and changes the complexity of the scene time and time again with a release of the proverbial pin that levels everything and everyone in its path with the loudest thud.

– Storytelling fluidity. At 84 brief minutes, “The Hunt” practically whizzes by its second act with two respective bookends of beginning and end that flow so smoothly from a storytelling perspective. This makes the pacing exceptionally crafted in a way where the minutes fly by with cunning persistence, and makes this one of the easier sits that I have experienced in quite some time. It helps that you’re so invested in the unpredictability of the narrative, but beyond that the scenes are pasted together in a way that maintains the momentum seamlessly, and with the exception of some exposition-heavy scenes late in the film’s second act, crafts an otherwise entertainingly consistent story that allows you to get lost in one of its many pockets that I mentioned previously. Even with a time that barely reaches the minimum of big screen definition, the film never wears the weight of its minutes with a helping of fun characters, deadly devices, and devious social commentary that aged like a fine wine.

– Pulsing cinematography. Darran Tiernan is a man with such an influential stroke over the film’s visual presentation, and through many expermental motions articulates his brilliance in a way that challenges conventions for how action sequences are typically shot. On a color spectrum, there’s nothing richly vibrant about the textures that are being illustrated. This is a positive because it makes the world depicted in frame feel even closer to our world, despite the abundance of the story feeling like an eccentrically amplified version of the social commentary that we are used to. Every approach colorfully feels grounded, but not sacrificial of the big screen feel that much of the movie feels reaching towards. In addition to this, the movements of the camera that he instills during intense scenes of physical confrontation immersed me into the mayhem displayed front and center, and acted as a living, breathing character within the confrontation that reciprocated the movements of the characters involved in the tango. This is similar to the work that Leigh Whannell did during “Upgrade”, but I credit Tiernan a bit more for his dependence on long takes, which weave throughout walls, windows, and counters without even blinking a single time. Most importantly, nothing depicted is ever jumbled or chopped up because of such a volume of intensity displayed, and considering his work has been mostly television, his jump to cinema here feels like a full-fledged evolution of a future artist at work.

NEGATIVES

– Cheap budget instances. “The Hunt” was filmed for a mere 14 million dollars, and while that is exceptional for a Blumhouse Productions budget, it doesn’t make the most of its money during occasional obvious moments that stand out like a sore thumb. Some of these exist in the action set pieces, which often do show the full realization of the violence contained, but a few times in between cutaway abruptly to where our minds have to fill in the blanks during some ambitious sequences. It hints that their creativity may have reached its monetary limit during the computer generated sequences that the film frequently depends on, and left me wanting more in a way that isn’t a positive when you consider why. Beyond this, the minimal screen time of Swank is one that serves as an occasional annoyance, especially considering the film has no qualms about revolving around her, or hearing her while leaving her face obscured. I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if an on-set extra portrayed Swank’s character during these scenes, as the obviousness of the attention paid to her cryptic character elaborates that not everyone was present when such scenes were filmed.

– Halting progress. I mentioned earlier how there’s a small exception of ten minutes of so during the film’s second act, where the exposition-heavy dialogue and overall lack of backstory for the antagonist characters starts to creep up in a way that feels foreign to the smooth flow of what was previously established. It’s like the screenwriters forgot to allude to why any of this was happening in the first place, but beyond that exhales some plot holes in character logic that start to creep up the longer you think about them. For instance, why is Gilpin’s character, a cashier at a retail store, such a crafted martial artist? Beyond that, how is she so intelligent when it comes to expecting what is coming minutes before it ever materializes? If she’s a survivalist in her home life? Fine, but the leaps in her near perfect armor are occasionally a bit nagging, and highlight how little characterization was paid before ten minutes of bloated exposition tried to fill in as much as it could.

– Condemning epilogue. If I had to remove anything from the already tightly packaged film, it would be the film’s very first sequence, which opens the movie on our antagonists, and gives away more about the game itself than I would’ve cared for. Ambiguity is the key in a movie with a plot so extreme from the kind of world we’re used to, at least in the physical nature of its deadly game, but the scene not only unmasks who is responsible for everything, but does so in a way that gives away pivotal clues to the game itself, which pits us the audience a few steps ahead of the players themselves in terms of information. This is one of my least favorite contemporary cliches in cinema, because it forces us to wait for the characters in the film to catch up to what we know, instead of vice versa, and is overall so meaningless when you consider a the exposition-heavy scene that I mentioned during the second act pretty much repeats everything that is mumbled during this sequence.

My Grade: 7/10 or B-