Tonight's review is the 2018 black comedy / thriller satire film, Assassination Nation, directed by Sam Levinson, and stars Bella Thorne and Bill Skarsgard. A small town gets turned upside down when an anonymous hacker starts to reveal personal messages and secrets of its citizens. As anger erupts into full-blown violence, four high school girls soon find themselves in a fight for their lives against an armed mob. This has an interesting concept that could've worked, but it unfortunately fails for me.
Pros: I liked how the plot touches base on a lot of issues we as society see everyday: hypocritical dirty politicians involved in sexual scandals, lies from all angles, infidelity among relationships, and how we react when we find out about our loved ones' dark secrets. It really opens your eyes on how well you truly know your neighbors, friends, family, and important leaders in your community. There are a lot of metaphors that are hinted throughout the film that works sometimes. It gets really bloody in that third act, which I liked. The cast were alright; no one special stuck out. It also has a nice score too. I liked the Heathers meets The Purge vibe, but unfortunately that doesn't come until way later in the film. Cons: Like I stated above, I liked the satire it was going for, but the structure of the film is what ruined it for me. It takes FOREVER for anything to start popping off. The first 45 minutes of this film is nothing more than four high school girls and high school boys skyping, texting, partying , drinking, and having sex. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but it gets overly drawn out to the point of taking the majority of the film's runtime. The film is a bit tone deaf as well. It doesn't know if it wants to be a black comedy, a party film, or a serious thriller / horror. A lot of complaints I've heard from other people was the fact that the trailers acted like it was gonna be this crazy balls-to-the-wall Purge-type of film, but that doesn't happen until the very end. I heavily agree with those people. The pacing of the plot was incredibly slow for my taste. I had to turn to my phone quite a bit to avoid falling asleep and there also plot points that never get resolved that became very problematic for me.
There's nothing more I can really say other than, for the most part, I didn't care for this film at all. A very wasted potential of a good concept.
Final Grade:
