Written by: Macon Blair (screenplay by), William Giraldi (based on the book by)
Directed by: Jeremy Saulnier
Starring: Jeffrey Wright, Alexander Skarsgård, James Badge Dale, Riley Keough, Macon Blair
Rated: TV-MA
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Plot
Set in Alaska, where nature writer Russell Core tracks a pack of wolves suspected of killing three children. He is hired by one of the children's parents, but after the mother disappears, the boy's father returns from the Iraq War intent on wreaking havoc.
Verdict
This is a baffling movie. I wasn't really sure what this was about or the point. It left on a question mark and it wasn't until I did some more research that the pieces fell in place. I'm usually good at putting everything together, but this movie is a bit too ambiguous. Knowing the clues now and how this is about a couple with a wolf like will to survive, I want to watch it again.
It depends.
Review
I was excited for another Saulnier film. I really liked Green Room and Blue Ruin. Based on those two movies, I'll watch whatever Saulnier makes. I was disappointed to learn, Saulnier didn't write this. Frequent collaborator Macon Blair did. Blair also wrote and directed I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore.
This starts slow with a mom, Medora, contacting wolf expert Russell Core to hunt the wolves that took her son. Core is older, he's not in his prime like on his book covers. You get the sense he's hard up for work. Medora
He's staying in this woman's home, but she isn't quite right. Core is too shocked to do anything when she involves him in a weird night time ritual.
Our introduction to Medora's husband Vernon provides a shock. He's cold blooded. I get it, but wow.
Core treks into the woods to track the wolves, but is less than competent when he discovers a pack of wolves eating their young for survival. The movie comes back to this point, though not explicitly later. Then this movie twists. Then it twists again. I thought this was a wolf tracking movie, but that's over quickly. Core and the cops have stumbled into this tribal village that still believes in spirits and magic to a degree. Medora and Vernon don't quite fit.
Vernon is on a rampage. He seems to be enacting some kind of blood rite and then his friend goes on a rampage against the police in a crazy shoot out. I don't get how his friend isn't even grazed with so many people shooting at him, but he's against a lot of rookies that aren't equipped for the situation. The cops frequently stand up from cover only to get shot. I take issue with that, but the movie does give a bit of explanation when a cop ducks away from cover to help his friend. It's a crazy situation and people aren't always thinking straight.
What do any of these scenes have to do with the plot? Nothing Vernon does makes any sense to me. What's up with the wolf mask? I wondered if we would ever be told the point. We're not really, we do get a few hints. Those hints weren't enough for me to piece this together, and it leaves on a big question mark.
I'm good at reading between the lines of a movie and picking out the point, but I didn't see the clues here. This is an understated movie and reading about this it makes it a lot more interesting. I just wish it went deeper on behavior. This is adapted from a book that's much less ambiguous as to what's happening. What we're seeing is two people that are intent on survival. Like wolves, they will destroy anything in there way if it's a threat. With that in mind, this movie takes on a different meaning. Maybe the wolf mask should be a clue, but we never get any grounding for that to take root.
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