Item: The Hunt
Rating: 5
Author: Matt Rooney

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

After being delayed from its initial 2019 release, THE HUNT is wearing the first wave of reactions that spurned a sort of political backlash on its sleeve, plastering on the new poster comments from news outlets and politicians that decried it as “offensive”, “dangerous” and more. Now finally nearing release and getting to lay eyes on it for myself, the only thing I can say in response to all the shouting around it is that it’s hard to be offended by, view as dangerous or even take seriously a movie that has the political-satire bite of a bad SNL cold open, and the only trigger warning I can give is that Hilary Swank has offensively little screentime.

For those of you who decided to not pay much attention to the movie’s initial marketing cycle and have little to no clue what it’s about, the surface level synopsis does indeed sound like something that would cause a lot of shouting on the internet. Waking up gagged and stranded in the middle of scenic countryside, a dozen people who are clearly meant to be stereotypical representations of right-wing extremists are hunted for sport by equally stereotypical representations of wealthy, uber left-wing, falsely “woke” people, seemingly for little reason. Again, that does sound like something that could get people on any side of the political spectrum riled up, especially about which side the movie stands with or is poking fun at. But not to worry, as the final product has no intent on picking sides, or even making any point whatsoever, and is perfectly content with milking the approach of “both sides are looney, so let’s watch them all die” for what little it’s worth.

You don’t need to look further than the characters themselves – on both sides of the aisle – to see just how thinly veiled the filmmakers' intentions might be. More in line with a script written by a first-time screenwriter who wanted to craft something that would “hold a mirror up to society, man,” and less so by actual, talented writers Nick Cuse and Damon Lindelof (“The Leftovers,” “Watchmen”), every character except one is nothing more than a mouthpiece for one-dollar catchphrases and the most bargain bin depictions of people from either political affiliation. The kidnapped and hunted are depicted as midwestern homophobes, podcast trolls, veterans who hate “elitists,” and who from the word go have no dimension or personality traits other than to spew out dialogue that gets them to phrases like “snowflake” “crisis actors” and anything else you can roll your eyes at. Same goes for the left-wingers, except for them, it’s constantly acknowledging their white privilege, making sure not to use “challenging” words, and being sure to acknowledge climate change, how awful sugary beverages are and so on. Having gotten together more than a few talented faces – like Ike Barinholtz, Emma Roberts and Glenn Howerton – the script and director Craig Zobel (Z FOR ZACHARIAH) don't bother digging any deeper into any of them for the sake of truly incisive satire, and the majority of the characters exist simply to be cartoonish caricatures who we’re supposed to despise so much we can’t wait to see them picked off.

And, to the movie’s credit, that is where it can be kind of fun. Each person we come across is so obnoxious and have the personalities of a Twitter rant, that when their time comes to be blown to smithereens, it comes with the added dose of silly fun. But this is purely enjoyable on a visceral, absurdist level, as the actual execution of many of the kills come far too early – perhaps as a misguided way to subvert expectations – that the movie loses much of its steam in the first 30 minutes, having no real clue what to do with its characters and where the story is actually going. Even calling it THE HUNT seems like false advertising, as no one is actually hunted. The left-wing crowd stays hunkered down as the key player, Crystal (Betty Gilpin), aimlessly bounces from one location to the next and left wondering why she and the rest of them were chosen to be kidnapped in the first place. The “hunters” are mostly off-screen and communicate through radio, with the script not giving the actors the courtesy of screen time to chew some scenery or do some actual hunting.

The only character to have a pronounced amount of time on screen, and acts as the movie’s ultimate saving grace, is Gilpin’s Crystal. Not quite in either right-wing or left-wing camp, she’s cold and trained enough in ass-kicking to easily make her way through the challenge. Gilpin gets a starring role that is made all the better in how she elevates thin character development by injecting a blunt sense of humor and unrelenting drive that makes her fascinating to watch. She plays it like a cool action hero with a biting, sardonic wit and perfect comedic timing to blend the movie’s humor and action in ways everything else fails to. As a character, she represents the outlier, the person who doesn’t give a shit about left or right, and just wants to get back home – and maybe blow a few people away in the process. She also gives a rendition of "The Tortoise and the Hare" for the ages, which is almost enough to make me recommend the price of admission.

Far too late in the movie we’re introduced to Swank’s Athena Stone, who could’ve been a much funnier, more effective character had she just, you know, been around. But whatever points are trying to be made as the truth behind the whole shebang comes to light are, they’re lost in a self-satisfying experiment in trying to tear down both sides of the major political spectrums. Thinking itself far cleverer than it really is, it's readily evident this is an idea stretched so thin that 90 minutes seems way too long a runtime. Like a bad SNL cold open, it might be somewhat worthwhile for a few gags, a committed performance or two, and for when it gets too silly to not at least chuckle at, but any attempts to be more than that are toothless and near embarrassing. It couldn’t be further from dangerous, and if anything, it may actually unite people on both sides of the aisle in agreement that this movie is not good enough to have made such a big fuss over.