The Hunt (2020)
So? There are crisis babies!
THE SUMMARY: An internet conspiracy theory about a powerful female CEO turns real after she’s fired for texting her friends about hunting deplorables in a movie I absolutely loved from start to finish. Fast pace, excellent writing, great satire of all political sides, tense yet funny action - I enjoyed every single aspect. Best of all, I didn’t expect to like this movie at all. A surprise 5-Wicky is the best 5-Wicky.
FROM MOVIE PICKER MICHAEL: A violent satire overlooked during the Covid shutdown. This may be an example of the filmmaker's left-leaning views producing a film that makes the right look better.
An equitable execution
There are crisis babies!
Culinary combat
THE BEST:
Excellent parody of everybody: Throughout the movie I kept wondering ‘is this making fun of the right? Or is this making fun of the left?’ The correct answer is both, and both well. There are so many cleverly written scenes with lines that land because they’re based on a nugget of truth, even if the situations are exaggerated to a silly level.
On the left, there are several scenes of excellence: the discussion between the gas station mom and pop about not feeling bad for killing the hunted because they probably use the N word openly on Twitter, the contentious dialogue between the hunters in their dugout about not making AIDS jokes, or not using gendered language, etc. - debating the ethics of microaggressions while they’re actually murdering people is exactly how I see the next civil war foxhole conversations. The intellectual trap for the bow-and-arrow girl upon her execution is also hilarious. ‘Hey miss, do you think you should be afforded mercy just because you’re a girl? No… [bang].’ At least she stayed true to her principles. An equitable execution.
On the right, the parody is also great, particularly Don and Gary’s characters. Gary’s bit about being targeted because he has a podcast that exposes these people hits a little too close to home, and sounds like a paranoid conspiracy theory, until it turns out to actually be true. Same with his thinking that everything in front of him is a performance at all times - it sounds crazy, until everybody is in fact an actor. His line about the refugees being crisis actors with ‘crisis babies’ is one of the best in the movie.
For Don, his parody is less about what he says, and more about what he represents. He gets exposed as a double agent, a ‘fed,’ if you will - Crystal kills him, and we never learn if he was authentic or a glowy. Just the way a glowy would want it, I think.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find all of these clips on YouTube, so you’ll just have to watch the movie to see them.
Excellent fast pace and action: Right from the start, the movie slaps you in the face with action. People’s heads getting blown off, people tripping mines, a chick falling into a spike pit… twice… after getting blown in half and before shooting herself in the face. As a constant critic of slow pacing, this one is the antidote.
The action itself is very good too though - the gunplay is believable, the gore is graphic in a way that still maintains a funny tone and not an overly dark one, and the hand-to-hand combat is very impressive. Normally I’m not a big fan of chick fights, especially if it’s a chick fighting a dude, but the closing fight between Crystal and Athena is an achievement. I’ll allow it 1) because it’s between chicks, 2) because it’s an athletic, physically impressive performance, and most importantly, 3) because it takes place exactly where it should - in the kitchen. If I must watch female combat, It should be in a proper culinary setting.
Excellent serious themes: To highlight only the comedy and the action would be to sell this movie short. I wouldn’t call it poetic or deeply philosophical necessarily, but it does have its moments. Crystal’s story about the jackrabbit and the box turtle initially sounds like an adaptation of The Tortoise and the Hare, the lesson being always keep moving, because even slow, steady progress wins the race against those who sleep. But this version ends with a twist - the jackrabbit shows up at the box turtle’s house later, kills his whole family, and eats his dinner, because the jackrabbit always wins. Don, confused, asks ‘who is the rabbit? Is it us, or them?’ That question is answered implicitly when a jackrabbit appears after Crystal kills Athena.
I love this metaphor because it challenges conventional wisdom. Sure, it’s better to finish the race slowly than not at all, but why not strive to go fast always? And the race isn’t always the end - sometimes fighting outside the rules is necessary, if the rules themselves are unfair. Crystal’s ‘race’ is completely unfair - she’s been abducted, hunted, and nearly killed several times over. To say she owes Athena and the hunters any kindness or fairness in defeating them would be to ignore the abuse they have committed against her.
Does that mean the jackrabbit is always justified? Of course not. But you’d much rather have the jackrabbit’s capabilities with the discipline to master and restrain them, than to be hampered with the box turtle’s limitations.
The tale of the jackrabbit
Another broad theme to appreciate - who is the real ‘conspiracy theorist?’ Is it the hunted for believing that Athena actually wanted to kill them in the first place, or is it Athena and the hunters, who (possibly) got the wrong Crystal? Who is responsible for the origin of the conflict? Is it the hunted for ruining careers based on flawed information, or is it Athena and the hunters for actually enacting what the hunted insisted was happening? Who is responsible for all the death? They both played critical roles in initiating and escalating to the point of mass killing.
There’s some meaning here about villainizing political opponents. Don’t get me wrong - I think the divisions in the country currently are deep for good reason. We have massive differences on crucial, foundational values that may not be compatible long-term. But the point this movie demonstrates is if you are looking for conflict, you will find it. Believing in it can actualize it. That doesn’t mean it’s wrong. It just means we better be sure those beliefs and that conflict are justified.
THE WORST:
Not much for character development: This isn’t a fault I find with the movie personally, but it’s one I could see people finding. If you’re big on character development, this may not be the movie for you. As soon as you’re getting to know a character, boom - that character’s face is blown off. I like that style of action and comedy, but the tradeoff is fewer characters you care about, fewer characters you understand, and fewer characters with interesting stories.
For me, the intrigue of the central characters is plenty - they are all compelling and well-performed, and I’d prefer focus on a few good ones over the noise of too many.
THE RATING: A 5-Wicky no-doubter. It made me laugh. It made me think. It is constantly clever and critical with a rare awareness of a wide range of political perspectives. A unique and memorable must-see for anybody interested in the culture war.
YOUR RATING: Vote here ⬇
NEXT WEEK: Jurassic Park (1993) - the dinosaurs win the one-week vote on my personal favorite movie list, narrowly edging out Gran Torino.
AFTER THAT? YOU PICK - VOTE! June’s movie nominations are from listener Kyle.
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