Their latest complete misfire is more interesting for the marketing than for the actual film. When the film was first going to be released it got some bad press and the film was quite falsely painted as political propaganda. The studio rethought their advertising strategy and rebranded themselves, trying to make themselves seem cool for all the controversy. Well it sure got people talking. Too bad the film is so shitty in the end.
The film is absurd from the first moments. Everyone is a cliche. The film isn't anti-"deplorable" or anti-"liberal-elite." It is that sort of cynical "everyone is bad and we should all just get along" BS that falsely equivilates being a racist with being an anti-racist. The film's characters are silly caricatures of red necks or campaign liberals. It revels in its jokes about snowflakes and political correctness and climate change denial and anything that one side uses to demonize the other. It turns it all into a joke. To The Hunt, everything is a joke. The film basically shoves these cliches in our faces then has them comically shoot at each other as if that is some sort of smart social satire.
But it's not. It's a cheat. Not taking sides isn't a strong intellectual position. It's gaslighting. It is standing outside of real problems and choosing to do nothing.
But it's not even the sketchy politics of the film. It's just how bad the film is. The jokes are sadly predictable and lazy. The story is boring. The violence is cartoony. Everything about the film just feels cheap. There is a way to do this sort of satire. Last year's Ready or Not showed up how to make this sort of a film in a smart and entertaining way. The Hunt shows us how not to.
The Hunt
Starring: Betty Gilpin, Ike Barinholtz, Emma Roberts, Hilary Swank, Sturgill Simpson
Director: Craig Zoble
Writer: Nick Cuse, Damon Lindelof
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