Assassination Nation (2018)

(On Cable TV, February 2021) I’m an optimist by nature, which puts me at a disadvantage in taking in a dark satire like Assassination Nation. Taking modern issues to a caricatural extreme, it’s a Dark Mirror episode given an expansive treatment: What if half the citizens of a small town got their phones hacked and everything they did online was uploaded for everyone to see? In the world of the film, this doesn’t mean embarrassment and saucy Internet searches: oh no, it means dark secrets and—especially—people being willing to kill in revenge. Assassination Nation is a harsh gory nightmare of American values gone awry (or, some would argue, exposed for everyone to see) and it soon turns into survival horror when its four protagonists are targeted by a rampaging mob intent on violent revenge. This is a film that doesn’t make sense on many levels, but that’s the point: it’s a nightmare of unleashed ids and it’s executed with the kind of fast-pacing meant to stop you from asking too many questions as it runs to the ending. That’s not necessarily a bad thing: like many socially conscious films of the past few years, Assassination Nation flips hard into a kind of violent moral rectitude that I find increasingly distasteful. (In another review, perhaps I’ll have a go at the way this is another example of the corroded public discourse in America.)  By the end of the film, the back-patting of the virtuous protagonists gets increasingly ludicrous, but I’ll have to admit that writer-director Sam Levinson’s go-for-broke pacing and sarcastic attitude didn’t make it feel as repulsive as more innocuous such films of the past few years. The satire helps keep in mind that this isn’t intended to be serious — and also explains why the too-earnest conclusion falls flat. I do think that there’s a great movie to be made about the ways the Internet shatters inner and outer personalities, and the consequences of excessive transparency. Assassination Nation isn’t it — but at least it’s willing to engage vigorously with current issues. I just wish the message was more artful and less self-convinced of its righteousness. Or that there would be some acknowledgement that, outside the headline-seeking extremists, humans are somewhat better behaved than we’re often willing to give them credit for. But then again, I’m an optimist.