Mike P. Nelson

(On Cable TV, May 2020) If you’re looking for a strong Science-Fictional reasoning behind The Domestics’ post-apocalyptic worldbuilding, hah, don’t bother: The opening visual of B-52s chem-bombing the United States is a great opener, but it’s explained more by the film’s cartoonish plot requirements than anything else. Years after a massive die-off, we’re to believe that American society has neatly divided itself in five violent gangs and the “domestics” trying to remain good Americans without the Mad Max cosplay. More of a horror road movie than anything else, The Domestics features a couple of ordinary Americans going from one thrill to another as they try to travel back to her parents’ place and reconcile through the mutual killing of enemies. Cannibalism, deadly games of Russian roulette and the likes are the film’s stock-in-trade, and while writer-director Mike P. Nelson’s execution is at least competent, it’s not a lot of fun, not likable, not uplifting, not pleasant to look at and not really interesting. Kate Bosworth looks out of central casing as the generic blonde lead and doesn’t bring much to the result. The Domestics hits its best moments whenever Lance Reddick is on-screen—otherwise it’s a lazy, cheap, tedious half-hearted attempt at post-apocalyptic fiction that will disappear without a trace.