Review:
"House of Dynamite"
Release Date: Oct. 10, 2025 Rating: R Running Time: 112 minutes Some films earn the absolute right to an ambiguous ending. Other films do not. Director Kathryn Bigelow’s otherwise gripping political thriller A House of Dynamite unfortunately falls into the latter category. Bigelow and screenwriter Noah Oppenheim offer a captivating and chilling look at how the United States—as well as its allies and its enemies—respond to an impending intercontinental ballistic missile attack on Chicago. But they undermine two suspenseful hours with an ending that isn’t just unsatisfactory—it undermines all that comes before it. The point Bigelow and Oppenheim make with their ending is clear and inarguable: if a major nation sustains an unprovoked attacks from an unknown assailant, what difference does it make whether the leader of that nation orders a retaliatory strike against an unidentified enemy? The damage is already done, and the world will spin into global warfare no matter what. But Bigelow and Oppenheim chose an ending that goes against the very structure of A House of Dynamite that they work overtime to build. A House of Dynamite takes a Rashomon-style approach to its countdown to destruction. The film is not told from memory, so there aren’t any unreliable narrators or an attempt to reveal the final truth. Instead, Bigelow and Oppenheim retell the events leading before the anticipated missile strike from the perspective of multiple government and military stakeholders, culminating with Idris Elba’s President of the United States. Each interconnected sequence follows a particular set of characters stationed at certain locations, with Bigelow and Oppenheim shedding more information on the crisis at hand through the unfolding events. Bigelow and Oppenheim introduce multiple pivotal characters through video or phone and conference calls before circling back to depict how they experience and react to the escalating events. A House of Dynamite opens with the action darting back and forth between Fort Greely in Alaska, where Anthony Ramos’ Major Daniel Gonzalez oversees the efforts to neutralize the ICBM, to the White House Situation Room, with Rebecca Ferguson’s Captain Olivia “Liv” Walker and Jason Clarke’s Admiral Mark Miller monitoring the situation. Other major characters include Jared Harris as Secretary of Defense Reid Baker, Gabriel Basso’s Deputy National Security Advisor Jake Baerington, and Greta Lee’s National Intelligence Officer for North Korea as Ana Park. The performances by the ensemble are powered by an increasingly profound sense of fear and urgency with the exception of Idris Elba, who radiates a calm though concerned demeanor that is expected of the Leader of the Free World. But it is Tracy Lett, as U.S. Strategic Command General Anthony Brady, who holds our attention and keeps things together with a cool and commanding demeanor as the film’s most hawkish protagonist. Bigelow and Oppenheim reset events with each new sequences, resulting in several destressing breaks before Bigelow quickly ratchets up the tension. Both in its separate parts and as a whole, A House of Dynamite offers an exhilarating peak behind the curtains as to how the United States would react to a surprise attack without resorting to hysterics. The film also is informed by many moral and ethical questions that a U.S. president must make during a crisis, especially regarding whether to launch a retaliatory strike against an unknown aggressor. “If we get this wrong, none of us will be alive tomorrow,” Basso tells his Russian counterpart. Unfortunately, A House of Dynamite does not see the true need to answer the biggest decision Elba’s U.S. president must make. Again, the outcome is the same no matter what Elba does, with millions dead and the world in ruins. But for a film that is built around this decision, and asks its audience what they would do if they were in Elba’s show, Bigelow and Oppenheim’s refusal to commit to a decision is irrevocably harmful to A House of Dynamite. They turn the film’s no-win situation into a no-win situation for themselves and the audience. Aired: Oct. 8, 2025. Web site: https://www.netflix.com/tudum/a-house-of-dynamite |
|