The Hunt (2020)
“Dangerous.” - Indiewire
“Not appropriate” - Time
“The most talked about movie of the year is one that no one’s actually seen.” - The movie’s marketers
We’ve seen The Hunt. We’re ready to talk about it.
The Hunt has not lacked for controversy. Originally scheduled for release in late 2019, it was delayed after mass shootings in Dayton and El Paso until February, 2020…and then put off again as cinemas around the nation began to close in the wake of the COVID-19 virus. The film was finally released via streaming platforms in March.
So what’s this thing all about?
The premise of the movie is that a group of “Deplorables” wake up in a meadow to discover that (initially) invisible enemies are hunting them. The twist (spoilerish, but something you likely know if you’ve seen anything about the film) is that the hunters are a bunch of politically correct - if you set aside the whole murdering people thing - ultra-liberals who spout catch phrases like “Climate Change is Real!” before killing their victims.
The set up is essentially framed as a mirror universe reflection of The Purge, with White, largely heartland and southern-originating, people taking the place of victims de jure. Like that movie, there is an abundance of over-the-top violence (which I’m generally not a big fan of). Also like The Purge series, there is a strong subtext…but one much more subtle than a simple rehatting of liberal for conservative.
“We need to lean into the stereotypes.”
The first hint that there is more to The Hunt than obvious comes in the first thirty minutes of the film, when one “Deplorable” after another comes into focus as the leader of the storyline…only to fall victim to death by arrow, hand grenade, or heavily processed sugar products. It is not an original trope. The HBO series Oz was built around that idea. But it is entertaining. It is also a soft set-up for one of the film’s major themes: what you think you see may not be what you get.
So stereotypes…
The movie is big on the idea that stereotypes are often not accurate…the obvious hero is killed early on…the victim is not what she seems to be…and so on. We won’t spoil too much but, throughout, characters prove to be something other than they appear.
One of them is our hero, Crystal (Betty Gilpin, most recently Ann Coulter in American Crime Story), who pops into the story around minute 30. None of the characters get much past two dimensional cutouts…which is kind of the point…but she does a lot with what she is given.
“What we have here, is a failure to communicate.”
We have to go truly spoiler-free at this point, but the last half hour of the movie explores a number of interesting ideas. The most apparent is that many of the problems in our current political climate do not come from genuine disagreement, but from assuming and ascribing the worst motives to those who disagree with us.
This is a blinding flash of the obvious to those who follow social media (which plays a huge role in the backstory of the movie), but Craig Zobel (the director) handles it cleverly. An even more interesting idea they roll around is how a fake conspiracy theory can evolve into a real conspiracy.
So what is the verdict on The Hunt?
First, we have to give the film props for trying to be original. It is not what it appears to be, and what it is is reasonably entertaining. At the same time, there is not much new in its twists or its morality lesson ending. For those, we recommend the quirkily meta The Cabin in the Woods.
And the acting, what little there is between exploding heads, is competent, particularly Gilpin and her arch nemesis Athena (Hilary Swank).
But…in the end…despite a pretty good ending and some smart ideas, The Hunt is not particularly inspired or original. It is not a bad movie…which may be part of the problem (its grasps for relevance turn a potentially interesting idea into a cliché) but it is not a really good one either.
But look past the stereotypes and decide for yourself.
You can catch The Hunt HERE via Amazon.
Two out of Five Poison Donuts.
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