The Hunt

It feels like a much different world now than the one that saw a politically-charged mass shooting in El Paso, Texas just a handful of months ago. That shooting resulted in The Hunt getting A) a lot of attention and B) getting "cancelled" (read: delayed ~ half a year). 

It's kind of worked out for The Hunt as it immediately became a talked about film for its portrayal of "liberal elites" hunting "deplorable red necks". Before, it had been a film not even on my radar and one that I can almost guarantee I would have skipped in favor of whatever else was out at the time. 

Now fast forward to a COVID-19 global pandemic, and nearly every big film in the next two months fleeing for an unforeseen amount of time, and The Hunt all of the sudden becomes likely the last film I'm going to see in theaters for quite some time. And the way things are going, that may not even be by choice, but rather by shutdown venues. 

So you could call my expectations for The Hunt almost non-existent. I wasn't pining to see it, I was mildly interested in how "controversial" it really was, and more so I realized I was just taking the opportunity to see a movie in theaters before there's nothing there (which hopefully means I can do a bunch of Retro Reviews!). *Side note* If coronavirus hasn't sorted its s**t out by the time Tenet hits - we have a while, luckily - I'm going to lose it!

The biggest irony about The Hunt is the way in which it made both sides of the political aisles react in the first place. You can see many of the "reviews" above on the poster - most from people who had not actually seen the movie - and by the time you've seen it, you know they were talking from an uneducated place. Again, the irony should not be lost here that some of the most vocal people on either side are often completely uneducated and unjustifiable in their opinion. The Hunt, almost accidentally and quite humorously, has called them out on this. 

"Oh my gawwwd, do you, like, workout?"

What The Hunt truly is, is a over-the-top gorefest/comedy. It's designed to have an attitude and you can bet that both Conservatives and Liberals are attacked frequently here. The opinions of both sides represent the extreme worsts of each group and the "insults" are so surface-level that the film could barely count as having a political message. Instead, much like the poster suggests, it's a film that's just out to trigger and troll overly sensitive people from either side. That, in and of itself is somewhat delightful, but unfortunately I found the whole political commentary/trolling a weaker aspect of the film. It came and went without consistency and was never all that funny. 

But the rest of the film, while by no means a good film, is pretty darn entertaining and has some laugh out loud moments. It's shockingly violent and you soon come to learn that it's comically violent too, almost like an R-rated cartoon. The first half hour will surprise you and the film never really captures that same energy again, nor does it have all that much more story to reveal. But, luckily it has an ace up its sleeve in Betty Gilpin's Crystal. We never get an explanation or flashback as to why Crystal is so weird - she's anxious, can't communicate well, seems to not be able to control her facial features - but it somehow just works. This is literally one of the weirdest leading characters I've seen in a movie in a while, but Gilpin's performance is so mesmerizing to watch that you're just left wondering how she'll act next. It's almost as if Ryan Gosling's driver from Drive was suddenly hilarious. Not to be outdone is a scene-chewing villain in Hilary Swank's Athena. I'm partially shocked she's in this film, dropping F-bombs, stabbing people, etc. but it feels like she's having a blast. Her character is nearly as captivating, partially just because it's Swank, and when the two of them interact, it's a lot of goofy fun. 

Ready to kick some [awkward] butt and take some [awkward] names

The Hunt is a film that's gotten lucky with its circumstances, tragically, and while I can't say it's an amazing film I'll be writing about at the end of the year, it was an entertaining diversion from hearing about coronavirus 24/7. It's not nearly as politically charged as it has been made out to be and if it does trigger you, that should probably be your first warning sign. At just 89 minutes, it's of the "short and sweet" variety that will distract you well enough to earn it some points above how average it would be in any other climate. 

CONS

• Ultimately the political humor fell flat for me. Neither sides was all that funny but perhaps that's just a side effect of the depressing news cycle we're in
• From a technical perspective, there's not much to marvel at here. Average editing, cinematography, music, etc.
• Loses some steam after a shocking and funny kickoff
• Doesn't have all that much of a story

PROS

• Betty Gilpin is phenomenal. Her character is strangely awkward and in hindsight I like that it was never explained. She earns some big laughs throughout and kicks a lot of a**
• Hilary Swank looks to be having a blast playing a far different character/villain. She also gets some good action beats
• Cartoonish gore and action
• Short and sweet
• Not necessarily in the movie, but the political commentary about the movie itself vs. the reaction it warranted is better than any commentary in the actual film
• Entertaining nearly the whole time

Rath's Review Score | 6.5/10