The Order, 2024.
Written and Directed by Justin Kurzel.
Starring Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan, Alison Oliver, Jurnee Smollett, Marc Maron, Odessa Young, Gordon Rix, Huxley Fisher, Matias Lucas, Philip Granger, Phillip Lewitski, Victor Slezak, George Tchortov, Sebastian Pigott, Bradley Stryker, Daniel Doheny, Ryan Chandoul Wesley, Geena Meszaros, Sean Tyler Foley, Sarah Haggeman, Morgan Holmstrom, David LeReaney, Judith Buchan, and Chantal Perron.
SYNOPSIS:
A series of bank robberies and car heists frightened communities in the Pacific Northwest. A lone FBI agent believes that the crimes were not the work of financially motivated criminals, but rather a group of dangerous domestic terrorists.
Throughout 1984, neo-Nazi Bob Matthews (Nicholas Hoult) planned a six-step government overthrow, all in the name of transforming America into a land exclusively owned by and for Caucasians. He was operating from the teachings of a book entitled The Turner Diaries, which has apparently long been used as a strategic and influential tool for carrying out domestic terrorism, such as the January 2021 insurrection in the US capital.
Coming from miserablist writer/director Justin Kurzel, The Order saves that chilling information for the pre-ending credits text, but considering that this rogue group splintering off from the Aryan Nation (they are tired of waiting for what’s promised, deciding to follow Bob’s new vision for action), the parallels are unsettlingly palpable.
It’s a bold move and an entirely unsurprising one, given that Justin Kurzel specializes in disturbing misery porn typically centered on murderers. Still, since one of those steps involves armed bank robberies immediately after bombing another building for a distraction, there are numerous tense, well-crafted shootouts that are undeniably riveting to watch, however, not without washing away the uncomfortable sense that we are accustomed to cheering on the robbers and criminals in these cinematic situations. That’s not to say the filmmaker has accidentally or unintentionally made a film that gets behind this faction of racist scumbags, just that giving their crimes so much focus and perspective might not be adding as much as he thinks it does. Sometimes, one gets caught up in the intensity of it all and would be forgiven for forgetting who they should be rooting for.
To make a clear distinction, giving Bob Matthews and his group equal screen time among police investigation units isn’t the problem. Early on, the film introduces Jude Law’s Terry Husk, a disgraced veteran FBI agent who is essentially estranged from his family after presumably decades of compulsively working. Meanwhile, Bob Matthews is the type of person who will use and walk all over anyone, including women he sleeps with (one that is technically his romantic partner, another for birthing a child, hopefully, a boy, to carry on his bloodline), all in the name of his cause.
There is the impression that Terry has convinced himself neglecting or destroying his family life was for a righteous purpose. It’s one of numerous subtle similarities between the two people that Terry wouldn’t like to admit, but it does become instrumental to catching him dead or alive. The character work is here, intentionally underneath the surface of the cat-and-mouse investigations and chases, leaving behind something sobering and unsettling for reasons beyond the domestic terrorism and racist horrors on display.
Terry also takes young officer Jamie Bowen (Tye Sheridan) under his wing, as he seems to be the only person in this rural Idaho community who believes that the nearby Aryan Nation compound is somehow connected to the recent string of domestic terrorism acts across the Pacific Northwest. He is eager to do some good but might become another Terry, obsessively lost in his dangerous field of work that could jeopardize his romantic. Smartly, the film doesn’t prioritize these families; these observations are all there while most of the experience operates as a pulse-pounding thriller.
In that regard, The Order is scintillating with explosively crafted shootouts (composed with crystal clarity by cinematographer Adam Arkapaw, who also gets some gorgeous and vast landscape shots), a hotheaded and urgent Jude Law, and a deeply unnerving Nicholas Hoult (who is having a hell of a year between this, Juror #2, and the upcoming masterful Nosferatu.) It’s a film that will rattle and leave one shaken primarily because of its restraint to beat the message over the viewer’s head, even if there are some questionable concerns to raise over how the storytelling handles perspective.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at [email protected]
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