The Hunt

MOVIE #1,265 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 12.05.23 There's been a wealth of films lately, it seems, that wear their satire not so much on their sleeve but on blaring neon signs. And this one might take the fucking cake in that department. This is one of the movies I wish I still did the podcast for because it seems like it would be easier and more enjoyable to riff about than write about. That it still manages to be entertaining in spite of the obnoxious, in-your-face South Park style* “both sides suck!” political stuff is a minor miracle. And it really is going for balance in this department (I kept wondering whether it was going to take an ultimate position, and I'm sure this conclusion might vary from viewer to viewer, but I thought it was pretty much down the middle).

By the time the final twist rolls around (and there are a plethora of twists), and Hilary Swank bemusingly replies to our lead Betty Gilpin (who delivers a really good, shockingly quiet performance that works against the bigness of the set-up): “you’ve read Animal Farm?” I wasn’t sure if that quip was genius or lame. And that's pretty much the landscape where this entire movie exists.

This made waves in the leadup to its release but then became an early COVID theater casualty. So the whole ‘conversation’ didn’t really go anywhere, which is probably for the better. It exists as an interesting, mostly forgotten document in the post-Trump landscape trying to touch upon any and every hot button topic imaginable. And that’s an impossible task that nobody wanted, but it’s a pretty decent effort (all things considered) with a fun cast full of 'that guy' actors (Alway Sunny's Glenn Howerton, Emma Roberts in an early exit quasi-cameo, Mallrats' Ethan Suplee, Sturgill Simpson as a character named "Vanilla Nice" etc).



*For the record, I enjoy/have enjoyed South Park and they're the rare example of that ethos working in comedy (also the animated medium helps a lot).

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⫷ MOVIE #1,264 - (YOU ARE HERE) - MOVIE #1,266 ⫸

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The Hunt is a 2020 American satirical action horror film directed by Craig Zobel and written by Nick Cuse and Damon Lindelof. The film stars Betty Gilpin, Hilary Swank, Ike Barinholtz, and Emma Roberts. Jason Blum was a producer under his Blumhouse Productions banner, along with Lindelof. Zobel and Lindelof have said that the film is intended as a satire on the profound political divide between the American left and right. It is about a group of elites who kidnap working class people to hunt them. It was released on March 11, 2020.