Movie Review: Assassination Nation

Assassination Nation *** / *****

Directed by: Sam Levinson.

Written by: Sam Levinson.

Starring: Odessa Young (Lily), Suki Waterhouse (Sarah), Hari Nef (Bex), Abra (Em), Bella Thorne (Reagan), Bill Skarsgård (Mark), Joel McHale (Nick), Maude Apatow (Grace), Colman Domingo (Principal Turrell), Anika Noni Rose (Nance), Kelvin Harrison Jr. (Mason), Lukas Gage (Eric), Cody Christian (Johnny), Danny Ramirez (Diamond), Noah Galvin (Marty), Jennifer Morrison (Margie Duncan), J.D. Evermore (Chief Patterson), Cullen Moss (Mayor Bartlett), Susan Misner (Rose Mathers), Joe Chrest (Lawrence), Kathryn Erbe (Rebecca Colson), Jeff Pope (Officer Richter), Andrene Ward-Hammond (Officer Daniels).

 

Sam Levinson’s Assassination Nation hits out so wildly in all different directions, on all different targets, that it’s kind of impossible to figure out what precisely it is arguing for. An early scene gives so indication, when the heroine of the film, Lily (Odessa Young) is called into the principal’s office to discuss her drawings for art class – drawings of nude women masturbating, which the principal (Colman Domingo) is not wrong in saying are not appropriate for high school. Lily launches into a lengthy defense of her work – that just because the drawing is of a naked woman, doesn’t mean it’s sexual, and how it’s about the impossible beauty standards placed on young women online – it’s not this one photo, it’s the hundreds of other you took to get this one right – and how all it takes it’s one person to say something mean about it online to bring you down and on and on. It’s not that Lily’s argument here is wrong per se – but I question whether or not she really means it, or whether she’s just making it to avoid trouble and excuse her interest in doing pornographic drawings in class, to shock the adults. You could very easily say the same thing about Assassination Nation as a whole – it is a movie that tries to wrap itself up in feminist garb, but I cannot tell if the film actually means any of it, or is just using it as an excuse, since this is a movie where much of the runtime will be taken up by teenage girls in skimpy clothes talking about sex. It is an exploitation film pretending not to be an exploitation film, while also being an unapologetic exploitation film – if all that makes sense. In short, the film is a mess – but it’s such an entertaining mess, and one that raises such troubling questions – both in the film, and about the film – that it’s a fascinating film to think about after it’s over. Does it work? I don’t know – but I won’t forget it anytime soon.

 

The film takes place in Salem (the first of many too on the nose references in the script) and is about, in Lily’s words, when the town lost its “motherfucking mind”. Lily and her three best friends – Bex (Hari Nef), Sarah (Suki Waterhouse) and Em (Abra) are popular, 18-year-old high school students, strutting through their school full of confidence. Lily has a boyfriend – Mark (Bill Skarsgard), who seems sweet, unless he gets drunk (and that happens all the time), because then he’s likes to be cruel and slut shame Lily. She also texts someone named “Daddy” – sending him nudes, or near nudes (her face concealed) and he texts back dirty things. This was never a smart idea – but clearly isn’t when there is a hacker on the loose in town, intent on exposing the town’s secrets. The town’s anti-LGBT mayor is first to have his hypocrisy exposed, and then the principal gets brought down as well, not because he’s really done anything wrong, but the mob mentality that is starting to form brings him down anyway. And then, more and more and more people get their secrets exposed – and it’s only a matter of time before Lily is among those whose secrets get out. And the town, eventually, turns their collective rage on her and her friends, as everyone is exposed.

 

As a director, Levinson cranks up the style to 11, and while in other cases that may seem annoying, it matches the subject here. You could play spot the references throughout the film, and have a good time doing so. He’d probably be happy with the description of the film being a John Hughes as written by Tarantino and directed by DePalma. There are moments that are brilliant – like a terrifying home invasion, done in one long take from outside the home. This is really the point where the movie goes from a satire into a whole on Purge-style orgy of violence. That transition isn’t easy – and Levinson doesn’t really know how to do it, he simply has a “One Week Later” title card – as it’s in that week that the town descends into abject chaos.

 

Because the film has so much on its mind, and lashes out in so many different directions, it’s kind of understandable that the plot and characters take a backseat to Levinson’s style, and his messaging and themes. Really, other than Lily and Bex, the rest of the characters are paper thin – we don’t really know anything about them. Give to the talented ensemble though – they throw themselves wholly into their roles, and make them work more than they should.

 

As the film goes on, and keeps on attacking new topics, the whole thing flies off the rails at some point. And yet, I think flying off the rails is kind of the movies point. This is a film full of contradictions that doesn’t really know what it wants to say. Perhaps that makes it a fitting film for this moment in time.