a review of

Having predominantly appreciated Kathryn Bigelow’s films since the great Near Dark (1987), in my humble opinion, A House of Dynamite is no banger, so to speak. I get the message: the US is probably lost if some country with long-range nuclear missiles suddenly decided to send one to the US, but the film is rather boring, with annoyingly nervous camera motion and lots of chaotic scenes with slick, perfect people shouting all kinds of fancy military abbreviations at each other. And then there’s the approach of repeating the same scenario from a different viewpoint, which I’m not a fan of, unless it really adds to the narrative. In this case, it took away the tension.  To me, war is a stupid, unnecessary, dangerous game between nationalistic, stubborn, power-thirsty humans. And when it comes to the nuclear missile subject, I quite liked War Games (1983). It’s a solid satire with a similar message as A House of Dynamite, but brought to the viewer in a more playful way.