ASSASSINATION NATION: An Ugly Film For Ugly Times

If you’re familiar with Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s South Park series, you would know that one of their consistent jokes and climaxes is having the citizens of South Park divide themselves into two large angry mobs, holding torches and yelling at each other until Stan and Kyle come to deliver the moral of the episode to change everyone’s minds and restore peace to the town.

Imagine that scenario but no Stan and Kyle to calm them down. Now imagine those two mobs also have guns and an overwhelming sense of patriotism. Now imagine one of the two mob parties is led by four teenage girls. Finally, strip away most of that comedy – this mob scene is not played for laughs. The end result is Assassination Nation, a rightfully angry ugly film that calls out the ugly hypocrisy of society.

Stylistic Editing, Unapologetic Tone, and Dedicated Performances

Like all angry films, Assassination Nation is written and directed with a confident in-your-face attitude by Sam Levinson. With the film literally beginning with a wave of texts and fast cuts to show all the potential trigger warnings it can cause, two things become clear: The first is the film, from start to finish, is going to do everything it can to break the conventions of narrative storytelling in order to remain energetic and engaging. The second is Assassination Nation is not going to apologize for anything.

For some #traditionalviewers, the film can come off as offensive, exploitative, and way too heavy-handed. I, on the other hand, wanted to absorb Levinson’s tale with an open mind, even if it means my mind has to be violently ripped open. What I got – or think I got – was a surreal mirror of our reality, framed as a cautionary tale.

We are quickly introduced to four teenage girls in the film – the lead protagonist Lily Colson (Odessa Young) and her three best friends Bex (Hari Nef), Sarah (Suki Waterhouse), and Em (Abra), who live in the fictional town of Salem (yes, we have our second “Cash is green” this year). To the older generation’s disdain, these four girls live not only reckless lives, but secretive lives online as well. But the way the script writes these four girls is, in a sense, respectful.

We don’t have to agree with their lifestyles or personalities, as long as Levinson keeps them interesting to watch and follow. The chemistry among the four is dynamite. They give each other shit, yet have each other’s backs, and it’s entertaining to watch the four react to things happening around them. After all, wasn’t that what the teenage life felt like, where you had no freedom of choice in your life and you can only react?

Things seemed normal for the girls in Salem. Problematic and annoying, but normal. That is until an anonymous hacker starts to leak private information from Salem’s citizens all over the Internet. Suddenly, the most private and dark secrets are brought to light. The ultimate blame game begins, as careers are destroyed and lives are ruined.

In the midst of this hack, the story gives us an opportunity to learn a bit more about the four girls. Unfortunately, the two played by Abra and Waterhouse are underwritten, if not unmemorable. Nef, however, is a delightful standout from the group. On screen, she shares a far more unique chemistry with Young, and I wish the film spent a bit more time with the two together. It seemed like they understood one another the most. Where Young plays the one who’s quiet and reserved with her friends about her secrets, Nef plays the one who’s extremely vocal and opinionated but not annoyingly ignorant. Speaking of ignorance, there is one good scene where the spotlight shines on Bella Thorne, whose cheerleader character Reagan is your quintessential bitch who deserves a punch in the face.

Odessa Young is an Incredible Vessel for Teenage Angst and Insecurities

But the star of the film is Young and her portrayal of Lily. In the first half of the film, I saw Young as a talented actress who could sell her character’s sarcastic dialogue and insecure thoughts. We learn that Lily has a boyfriend (Bill Skarsgård) but constantly sends nude pictures to her much older neighbor, whose contact name on her phone reads “Daddy [love-related emoji].”

We also learn that Lily is against people lying to each other and themselves about who they are and how their personas clash with their actual personalities. In a way, she’s hypocritical and conflicting herself. But she’s a smart girl who’s just stuck, and the way Lily reacts to the first hack shows her empathetic side – a clever maneuver in the script to help us empathize with her. Turns out, one mother-daughter exchange is all you need. This same scene is all you need to believe Young will be a star actress in the future.

But just when we thought things couldn’t get any worse in Salem, a legitimate witch hunt of the modern age begins when a second hack occurs and word has spread that Lily is the culprit. It is in the second half of Assassination Nation where Young just transforms from a young talented actress to an absolute force of nature on screen. This is because the second half of the film is when shit just hits the fan and the body count begins.

This is where Quentin Tarantino would be sitting up in his chair, rubbing his hands together and making a big grin on his face. No one is safe. Anyone can die at any moment. Yet, even during the film’s surreal climax, Young proves she is more than up to the task of responding to the crazy violent events around her. Furthermore, she successfully sells the idea that the violence leads to Lily’s eventual empowerment.

A Violent Night That Would Make The Purge Jealous

The last 40-minutes of Assassination Nation is just bat-shit bonkers. It’s as if Thoroughbreds and Revenge decided to become politically involved, or if The Purge decided to try ecstasy while watching Spring Breakers. It features violence and national pride in the same shots that will certainly leave a haunting impression on your mind, mainly because the script has set up the idea that this mob reality could really happen in our world.

In between the terrifying acts of violence and suspense, Levinson keeps the atmosphere and tone of the film tasteful by implementing skillful filmmaking techniques. From the way he cuts scenes and splits screens to the way he films a home invasion in one uninterrupted take, Levinson demonstrates that his crazy ideas are still grounded in firm visionary execution. It is because of his directing talent that Assassination Nation never comes off as exploitative to me. It’s never violent and appalling just because it can be.

It Takes an Offensively Ugly Film to Call out Societal Hypocrisy

Like I said at the start of this review, Assassination Nation is an angry film. Some writers have pointed out that the film is against the patriarchy, but I would argue otherwise. There is a loud message of female empowerment, yes, but that doesn’t mean the film is morally against masculinity. Not all victims in the film were female. In fact, the male victims were largely attacked because of the fact they were male. Rather, this is a film against victimhood – victims of the Internet, of hoaxes, and of misinformation.

And that’s the real troubling truth about the Internet and about people today. We take so much of what we hear about and read about at face value. Worse, we then insert our own beliefs into those news without having the decency to investigate more and see a different perspective. When secrets get spilled, we as people become so inclined to attack others and drag them down, even when we have our own secrets. To essentially make yourself feel better and more righteous by ruining someone else’s life – not knowing who they are as a person – is one of the highest forms of hypocrisy in a society. Sometimes, in order to expose an ugly truth, we need the ugliest movie there is.

It is my opinion that Assassination Nation is that movie. It’s the equivalent to getting knocked on the head repeatedly with a sledge hammer, forcing us to wake the f*** up. It may sound like a hard pill to swallow, but when an angry film like this is guided by a director who can so easily weave in between political horror, social injustice, dark comedy, and teen comedy, you know you have something special. You can watch it if you’re a fan of genre films, Tarantino flicks, revenge flicks, teenage comedies, or stark cautionary tales. I am definitely in the 10% who think Assassination Nation is a blunt, antagonistic, but masterful film. I am also fully aware that there’s probably another 10% that would write books and essays about everything wrong with this film and how it’s morally repugnant garbage. Let this review be one of my many imminent attempts to sway the other 80% towards my direction.

Did you see Assassination Nation? What did you think of it? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!

Assassination Nation was released in the US on September 21, 2018 and will be released in the UK on November 23, 2018. For all international release dates, see here.