Assassination Nation

Assassination Nation

Starring Odessa Young, Suki Waterhouse, Hari Nef, Abra

Directed by Sam Levinson

The Story:
In the small town of Salem, friends Lily (Odessa Young), Sarah (Suki Waterhouse), Bex (Hari Nef), and Em (Abra) are enjoying their senior year of high school, doing the typical things high schoolers do - sexting, hanging with their boyfriends, smoking pot, and so on.  When a hacker unleashes the hidden files of the mayor (who's anti-gay but has lots of pictures of him in dress), the town is sent into an uproar, with Lily and her friends finding it funny.

Then their principal gets hacked, and the townspeople are angered to see he has seemingly inappropriate pictures of his young daughter, and go on the rampage.  Soon more and more people of the town get hacked, and Lily gets blamed.  The town demands her blood, and Lily and her friends arm themselves in order to survive the oncoming mob.

The Synopsis:
When I first saw the trailer to this film, I was very excited, as it seemed to be a very satirical, biting look at society today, and the power social media really has over us.  It seemed to point out that, even though we still long for privacy, we willingly give it up in order to gain followers and views.  It looked to be a film filled with blood and gore, in an overly exaggerated way that looked to be fun and entertaining.  As they say, looks can be deceiving.  While the film does include all the aforementioned points I just made, it seemed to focus more on style over substance, not really making a complete point at all, but rather glossing over the bigger arcs and settling on mediocre generalities instead.

The film is incredibly stylish and fashionable, with a lot of split screen action that warrants multiple viewings if you want to fully see what's happening, but the story is so thinly written you get the gist of it after one.  Four high school girls are best friends, and they enjoy partaking in general teenage antics, but when a hacker reveals everyone's deepest, darkest secrets, the town goes into an uproar and targets the girls as the masterminds behind the hacks.

The characters are very thinly written, which is a shame because there's a lot that could've been fleshed out of them.  Odessa Young stars as Lily, the main girl in the story who mixes older wisdom and teenage apathy, who is clearly the leader of the group but doesn't really go any farther.  Transgender actor Hari Nef shines as Bex, the no-nonsense girl who relishes in the mayor's outing after vehemently going against the LGTBQ community, and serves as a force to be reckoned with when it all hits the fan.  The other two girls aren't given a lot to work with, which is surprising for a film of this caliber.

The film, as described in the trailer, is a modern-day mixture of "Heathers" and "The Purge," the first half centering on the girls' relationships and how the hacker starts his reign of terror, and then the second half we see all hell break loose as the townspeople become an unstoppable violent mob bent on killing the girls for revealing all their secrets - as they wear masks to do so.  Maybe if the film focused on one side or the other, it could've accomplished its goal of really telling a compelling story, but instead it seemed to rush the first half to get to the blood-filled conclusion.

I love how the film shines a light on the absence of privacy, as that's what's happening in the world today.  The older people still believe in privacy, while the younger generation literally put everything out there for the world to see, and there's not a lot in the middle.  Yet, even for the younger generation, they don't put their real selves out there, as Lily even mentioned in the film - no one wants to know the real you.  This becomes abundantly clear when the real stuff gets out there, and everyone looses their minds.  If this idea was more developed, this could've been a spectacular film, but instead it focused more on style and lost this emotional moment in the heat of split screens and loud noises.

There was a moment of genius, and it comes after the girls are outed as being the hackers, even though it wasn't them, it doesn't matter because if the Internet says it, it must be true.  As a gang of townspeople surround the girls in their home, we see one long sweeping shot of them moving through the house and run into the bad guys in different rooms, with the camera angles flipping and moving seamlessly from one room to another in a way that's extremely well done, and I found myself pleasantly surprised.  Unfortunately, just like the film itself, this only served as one flash of genius in an otherwise muddied tale of female empowerment and street justice, with a rather lackluster ending for such a big build-up.

The Summary:
Despite wanting to tell a timely story about the lack of privacy in America, "Assassination Nation" decided to focus more on being stylish and crass instead of actually telling a story, resulting in a so-so film that could've been so much better.

The Score: B+