Movie Review: The Purge: Election Year

The Purge: Election Year

Directed by: James DeMonaco.

Written by: James DeMonaco.

Starring: Frank Grillo (Leo Barnes), Elizabeth Mitchell (Senator Charlie Roan), Mykelti Williamson (Joe Dixon), Joseph Julian Soria (Marcos), Betty Gabriel (Laney Rucker), Terry Serpico (Earl Danzinger), Edwin Hodge (Dante Bishop), Kyle Secor (Minister Edwidge Owens), Raymond J. Barry (Leader Caleb Warrens), Naheem Garcia (Angel Munoz), Brittany Mirabile (Schoolgirl #1 Freakbride / Kimmy). 

 

Make no mistake – the premise behind The Purge movies is more than silly, its outright ridiculous – that any government would allow 12 hours a year when citizens can break whatever laws they want isn’t even in the realm of plausibility – let alone that it would have the effect that the trilogy of films has said it has (having said that, as I pointed out in my review of the original film, the Purge isn’t really that much more implausible that a lot of teenage dystopia movies either – especially The Divergent Saga). Also, it’s pretty hard to deny that the films themselves are more than a little hypocritical – they are films that are quite clearly against the type of violence that happens on the annual Purge night in the films, while at the same time, the films revel in that violence – hardly flinching away as the characters – both good and evil, shoot, stab, hack and slash their bloody way through the movies. The movie isn’t doing something thoughtful – like say, David Cronenberg has done numerous times in the past, where he’ll give you scenes that satisfy your bloodlust, and then push them a little further, or make the audience sit with the results of that bloodlust, and make them question what it is they wanted in the first place. The Purge films really do want to have their cake and eat it to. Yet, despite these very obvious flaws in The Purge movies, I have to admit that the trilogy works despite them. If we expect the ridiculous premise of the film at face value – which you really do have to do in a film like this, because fighting it for 90 minutes is an exercise in futility, and will get you nowhere, you really do have to wonder what the film is saying about American society. This is a country that is so in love with guns that the feel that a classroom full of dead 6-year olds in a worthwhile price for unfettered access to whatever weapons they want. This is a country where it doesn’t seem like we can go a week without someone committing a mass shooting, leaving countless victims in their wake – even when they know there will be consequences to those actions. This is a country that allows Donald Trump to spew hate filled speech that encourages the fear of “the other”, which often leads to violence. Ask yourself this question – in today’s America, if there really was an annual Purge night, how many people would take part?

 

In the third film in the Purge trilogy, the anti-Purge activists seems to be gaining ground on the New Founding Fathers – the political party responsible for the Purge in the first place. More and more, people are starting to see that the Purge night is really a conspiracy to rid the country of undesirables – the poor and homeless who “suck resources” and do not contribute – while at the same time making huge profits for insurance companies, gun companies and the NRA – who then funnel it back to the New Founding Fathers for elections. But now, there is a new voice – Senator Charlie Roan (Elizabeth Mitchell) – who was the lone survivor from her family from a hellacious Purge night as a teenager, and is now a leader Presidential candidate, who vows to end the Purge with her first act in office. And, she just may well – the polls between her and her competition, Minister Edwidge Owns (Kyle Secor) are close. The New Founding Fathers then have a plan – under the guise of making purge night “more fair”, they remove the restrictions against killing government officials, which normally would have protected Roan. She can now be killed – and while her head of security, Leo Barnes (Frank Grillo, reprising his role from the second film) wants her to flee for the night, she refuses. It’s a mistake – because of course, the New Founding Fathers send some people after her, and Leo and the Senator have to go on the run to try and survive. They do so with the help of a trio of people they meet on the outside – deli owner Joe (Mykelti Williamson), who is determined to protect his store no matter what, his Mexican immigrant employee Marcos (Joseph Julian Soria), who will do anything to help him, and former gang banger turned good Samaritan Laney (Betty Gabriel) – who spends Purge night driving around in a triage van, and delivering the wounded to safety.

 

As the series has progressed, the scope of the films has gotten wider, and they’ve gone from horror films to more violent action films. The first film was very narrowly focused on one house – that of a man who makes money selling security systems to protect people from the Purge (Ethan Hawke) – and his family, who are not as safe as they thought they were (he tries to explain to his wife – Lena Headley – that his systems were never designed to be foolproof – but to really just be more a deterrent than anything else – she is not amused). The Purge: Anarchy went outside into the streets for the first time, to show just how bad things had gotten out there. Now, with The Purge: Election Year, writer/director James DeMonaco, is showing the macro view from the government on down, and how the wider America is dealing with things. This is one of the reasons why the film isn’t as scary as the first film was – which, after all, was basically a home invasion thriller, with a political bent that it abandoned whenever it needed some violence and terror. The Purge: Election Year does the same thing at times – bringing up its politics, but abandoning them whenever it needs to spill some blood. The film also continues the series’ racial point-of-view, which is muddled and problematic, if well-meaning. On one hand, it is refreshing to see a film actually get the racial mix of Washington D.C. right – as well as the neighborhoods (my visit to America’s capital was weird – one street is full of fancy restaurants and museums, walk a block and you’re amongst homeless shelters and drug clinics) – and the film does quite clearly know that is overwhelmingly minorities that something like The Purge targets (which has been true since the first film). Still, though, it’s fairly undeniable that in The Purge: Election Year, Roan is a “white savior” type character, and Frank Grillo gets to play the biggest badass – while multiple black characters sacrifice themselves on their behalf, which doesn’t sit right.

 

The Purge films may be silly and violent and hypocritical and problematic – and yet despite of these things, for the most part, I like the films. They provide a horribly cynical view of humanity in general, and American specifically (I would have liked the idea of murder tourism, which is mentioned here, more fully explored) – even as the film ends somewhat optimistically, it still undercuts that. Perhaps this is the last Purge film, perhaps not  - it seems like a fitting to stop, yet the film made three times it budget in its opening weekend, so more films may be too tempting to pass up. The films, as flawed as they are, do you give you something to chew on and think about – which a lot of films don’t.

Movie Review: The Purge Anarchy

The Purge Anarchy
Directed by: James DeMonaco.
Written by: James DeMonaco.
Starring: Frank Grillo (Sergeant), Carmen Ejogo (Eva Sanchez), Zach Gilford (Shane), Kiele Sanchez (Liz), Zoë Soul (Cali), Justina Machado (Tanya), John Beasley (Papa Rico), Jack Conley (Big Daddy), Noel Gugliemi (Diego), Castulo Guerra (Barney), Michael K. Williams (Carmelo), Edwin Hodge (The Stranger), Keith Stanfield (Young Goul Face).

There’s no mistake about it – The Purge Anarchy is kind of a stupid movie. Yes, it tries to have a political message about class warfare, but if I recently complained that some of the otherwise great Snowpiercer contains dialogue that is a little too on the nose on the subject, The Purge Anarchy beats you over the head with its message – oftentimes having scenes that serve no narrative purpose at all other than to literally sermonize to the audience (everything Michael K. Williams says, which still somehow works, probably because Michael K. Williams is wonderful in everything). The same was true of the original Purge movie last year – which had this political content, but after a while pretty much abandoned it in favor of making a home invasion horror movie (until the final scenes bring it back again). Yet, like the original film, I have to say that perhaps in spite of my better judgment, I liked The Purge Anarchy – at least far more than I probably should. The film is dumb, yet it works.

We are 9 years into the future. The New Founding Fathers of America have taken over, and their crime prevention plan – which apparently works brilliantly – is that once a year, for 12 hours, all crime – including murder – is legal. This allows everyone to get all their aggression and anger out in one 12 hour block, and keeps everyone busy for the rest of the year. And hell, if a bunch of poor people, who cannot afford to protect themselves, happen to die, who cares? What do they contribute to society anyway? Nothing.

The movie opens shortly before the annual Purge is about to begin. We see Sergeant (Frank Grillo) preparing to go out for the night – but unlike other purgers, he seems to have a specific plan of revenge. There is Eva Sanchez (Carmen Ejogo), a waitress with a sick father and a teenage daughter (Zoe Soul) – and live in a rundown apartment building. Then there is a divorcing couple Shane (Zach Gilford) and Liz (Kiele Sanchez) whose car breaks down – probably sabotaged by the creepy gang they run into in a parking lot) and are trapped downtown instead of being safely locked away. For reasons too complex (and yet banal) to explain, Sergeant ends up saving Eva, Cali, Shane and Liz are agrees to get them to safety, before he does what he needs to do. But that gang who sabotaged Shane and Liz’s car seems to be following them – as does a transport truck full of what appears to be soldiers, who Sergeant has angered. It’s going to be a long night.

The original Purge was made for only a few million – and its budget limitation showed, as it limited the action to a single house, instead of showing the wider world outside. Because of that films success, the budget is higher this time, and so it allowed writer-director James DeMonaco more of a chance to show everything he wants. The film certainly does show more – and is even more violent than the first film, yet it still manages to be more creepy and disturbing than gory.

I’m not sure why The Purge Anarchy works as well as it does – but it does. The visual are dark and grimy, the performances are good in their limited way (after all, how much character development can really go on when you’re essentially constantly fighting to stay alive). Yes, the allegory in the film is crude and I don’t really see how American is going to descend quite this far in just 9 years. Yet the film works. It kept me involved, it scared and disturbed me. Most modern horror movies – especially ones from mainstream Hollywood are cookie cutter and dull. Despite all of its flaws, The Purge Anarchy is neither of those things. Yeah, it’s dumb. But it works.

Movie Review: The Purge

The Purge
Directed by:  James DeMonaco.
Written by: James DeMonaco.
Starring: Ethan Hawke (James Sandin), Lena Headey (Mary Sandin), Max Burkholder (Charlie Sandin), Adelaide Kane (Zoey Sandin), Edwin Hodge (Bloody Stranger), Rhys Wakefield (Polite Stranger), Tony Oller (Henry), Arija Bareikis (Mrs. Grace Ferrin), Tom Yi (Mr. Cali), Chris Mulkey (Mr. Halverson), Tisha French (Mrs. Halverson), Dana Bunch (Mr. Ferrin).

The Purge is a nasty little horror movie whose ambition far outweighs its execution. Having said that however, considering how few movies of this ilk have any ambition at all – they exist just to be nasty genre exercises (which can be fine in their own right) – I didn’t so much mind that the movie didn’t quite live up to its ambitions, as I admired the movie for having them at all. It is an effective example of the “home invasion” horror story – a subgenre I like anyway – but it has more on its mind than that. Yes, you could pick apart at the seams of the movies, and find some plot holes – or be annoyed by one characters rather stupid actions – but I didn’t mind them very much.

The concept of the movie is that in the not too distant future, the “New Founding Fathers” or America (with a logo not unlike the NRA’s) will have solved America’s poverty and crime problems. One night a year, Americans get 12 hours to commit any crime they want – including murder – and they will not be punished. Critics (correctly) point out that it is the poor who suffer because of the annual Purge – the rich can secure themselves behind security systems, and can afford an arsenal of weaponry as backup – but the poor are left to fend for themselves – and they’re the ones who get murdered. Less poor people, means less of a “burden” they are to the rich, more jobs for everyone else, etc. Crime is now virtually non-existent, because even if you want to kill someone, why wouldn’t you just plot your crime from Purge day, and get away scot free.

The Purge doesn’t take a large scale view of this “annual tradition”, but a small scale one. James Sandin (Ethan Hawke) sells high tech security systems to the rich – and business is good. He finds out that he is the number 1 salesman for his company. He’s doing so well in fact that he and his wife Mary (Lena Headey) are putting an addition on their house – much to the chagrin of envious neighbors. The Sandins are the seemingly perfect, 1950s style nuclear family – mom at home, cooking fancy meals (“No carbs – not one”), and raising the kids – daughter Zoey (Adelaide Kane), who is “in love” with an older boy, and son Charlie (Max Burkholder), who is probably too smart and sensitive for his own good. The family settles in behind their security system, and plan on watching some “purge events” on TV. They are safe. That is until Charlie does something that no one else in the family would do, which sets into motion a series of escalating conflicts. There is a group of young, educated psychos out front – and they want in. And all of a sudden, James admits that the security systems he sells are quite as impenetrable as he made them out to be (“They look good, and people stay away”). The Sandins, therefore, will have to fight for their own survival.

The biggest problem I had with The Purge is the character of Charlie – the young teenage son of the Sandin’s. Much of what he does doesn’t really make logical sense. Sure, his action that sets in motion the rest of the plot does make sense – but from that point on, he acts only as the plot requires him to in order to move the movie forward, not really how a real person would act. This is one of those things you just have to accept in a movie like The Purge – because if he acts differently, you don’t really have a movie. Others may complain that the concept of the movie as a whole is farfetched – yet I don’t think it’s overly far-fetched in terms of other movies of its ilk – where characters believe they’re living in an utopia, until they come face to face with the reality of the situation, when they realize it’s not. You could also complain that the leader of the “freaks” is just a carbon copy of the gentleman killers from Michael Haneke’s Funny Games – but I prefer to see that as an homage. The killers in Haneke’s film are precisely the type of people who would embrace The Purge.

Despite its flaws, The Purge mostly works where it counts. As a home invasion film – the bad guys on the outside trying to get in, the “good guys” on the inside keeping them out – The Purge works quite well. Writer and director James DeMonaco spends much more time building up the tension – both in terms of horror and between the characters – than he does on violence and blood-letting (although, the movie has some good ones of those as well). And the film’s mixture of the high concept dystopia, mixed with the low concept home invasion film worked quite well for me. The Purge isn’t a great film – it would have to fully flesh out its political concept for that, and it never quite does – but compared to most films of its kind, it is vastly superior. Horror films are not usually released in the summer. The Purge is an example of why they should be.