On Screen: “A House of Dynamite”
A House of Dynamite
Who do filmmakers make movies for? Some make ‘audience-pleasers’ — those we still line up at the box office to see. Others make ‘message’ movies, delineating a dilemma and then leaving an audience frustrated because there’s no resolution, no payoff.
Since Oscar-winning Kathryn Bigelow (“The Hurt Locker,” “Zero Dark Thirty”) is one of Hollywood’s most exciting directors, it’s infuriating that — with “A House of Dynamite” — she’s chosen the latter rather than the former.
Scripted by Noah Oppenheim, evoking 1964 Cold War memories of Sidney Lumet’s “Fail Safe” and Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove,” this intense yet overly repetitive, three-part thriller takes place as a nuclear missile is launched over the Pacific Ocean at the United States by an unknown enemy.
Part One opens at the 49th Missile Defense Battalion in Fort Greely, Alaska, where Maj. Gonzalez (Anthony Ramos) and his crew are tasked with detecting and deflecting incoming threats with ground-based interceptor missiles.
Part Two switches to the White House Situation Room where Captain Walker (Rebecca Ferguson) realizes that an incoming missile is only 19 minutes away from its target in the Midwest. The ability of whatever country launched it to evade early satellite detection is ominous, underscored by Admiral Miller’s (Jason Clarke) admission: “There is no Plan B.”
Part Three includes informing General Brady (Tracy Letts) in STRATCOM (Strategic Command Center) in Nebraska, Secretary of Defense Baker (Jared Harris) at the Pentagon and the president (Idris Elba), who has ultimate authority over the use of nuclear weapons.
“This is insanity,” the president fumes. “This is reality,” Gen. Brady responds.
What if our high-tech equipment fails? What if our top analyst is watching a Civil War re-enactment during a nuclear crisis? And why is it obvious is that most government officials’- including POTUS — first response is personal, relating to their families?
So who fired the missile? Was it a mistake or intentional? Will we retaliate? We still don’t know … AND WE NEVER WILL!
Meanwhile, Kathryn Bigelow’s cinematic Doomsday Clock ticks on — cleverly chronicled by cinematographer Barry Ackroyd and adroit editor Kirk Baxter.
On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “A House of Dynamite” is a suspenseful, scary, speculative, unsatisfying 6, streaming on Netflix.
Susan Granger is a product of Hollywood. Her natural father, S. Sylvan Simon, was a director and producer at M.G.M. and Columbia Pictures. Her adoptive father, Armand Deutsch, produced movies at M.G.M.
As a child, Susan appeared in movies with Abbott & Costello, Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Margaret O’Brien, and Lassie. She attended Mills College in California, studying journalism with Pierre Salinger, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism.