Art reflects society. When society grows divided and divisive, art will reflect it, and such is the case with Sam Levinson's ASSASSINATION NATION. As with Kubrick's A CLOCKWORK ORANGE in 1972, (now ranking in the top 100 films on most critics' lists,) it's decidedly not a movie for everyone. ASSASSINATION NATION goes places uncomfortable and apropos, and does so in spectacular, over-the-top fashion.
PEW Research cited a staggering 94% of all American teens wielding social media as of 2015. We tell these teens that all nudity is inherently sexual and that their strongest natural urge is to be shunned, all while blatantly using it to sell practically every product on the planet. Some of their private divulgences, then, naturally contain nudity. As a legal repercussion, we've arrested and charged girls as young as thirteen with Felony Pornography Production for unwisely sending their boyfriends topless pictures - pictures these indiscrete boys shared with their entire schools and beyond. For added trauma, as hacking of social media grows more sophisticated, so, too, grows the broadcast of stolen photos and missives.
We inexplicably shame women who've been wronged - women whose privacy has been violated, women who have been raped - and excuse males, saying, "Boys will be boys." We give boys a free pass and a pat on the back, be they aspiring athletes or nominees to the Supreme Court. But oh! My mistake - Brock Turner actually served three months of a six-month sentence for raping an unconscious woman and leaving her behind a dumpster. No free pass there, though some bemoaned how "sex offender" status would hurt Turner's promising career.
Take a country where women have traditionally been treated as Second Class, achieving the right to vote only after a nearly 100-year unmet demand and not assuming control of their own bodies until fully a half-century after that - where marital rape wasn't declared illegal across all states until 1993, where equal advancement, and equal pay, for equal work is still out of reach for many, and you have a recipe for angst.
Next, introduce a manipulative political party (unashamedly gerrymandered a 33-seat gain in Congress while losing by 1.4 million votes in 2010) that pairs bible-banging righteousness with cascading hypocrisy to roll back hard fought rights women gained and ensure others are never achieved. Then, ice it with a philandering leader who has publicly called women "pig," "dog," "cow," "slob," and "disgusting animal," a man who elicits and validates the very worst tendencies... and you have the recipe for an explosion.
ASSASSINATION NATION takes a bloody hard look at where we are, lensing women's societal issues through a contemporized frame of the Salem witch trials. Some couldn't see past the violence committed by Alex and his droogs and condemned A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, and so will some be repelled by the violence and avoid ASSASSINATION NATION. In both cases, though, looking closer and paying attention rewarded this viewer. Your mileage may vary.
