Kathryn Bigelow and Netflix have debuted A House of Dynamite at the Venice Film Festival this evening, marking the Oscar-winning filmmaker’s first feature in eight years.
The nuclear thriller opens as an unattributed missile is launched at the United States. As a result, a race begins to determine who is responsible and how to respond.
The movie stars Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Gabe Basso, Jared Harris, Tracy Letts, Anthony Ramos, Moses Ingram, Jonah Hauer-King, with Greta Lee and Jason Clarke. Script comes from Noah Oppenheim.
The critical reaction so far has been overwhelmingly positive.
Deadline’s Pete Hammond wrote: “[Kathryn Bigelow] hasn’t lost her mojo if this nail biting thriller is any indication. Let’s just hope the world takes notice because this explosive story is scary in many ways, but mostly because it is so completely plausible in the powder keg of a planet we currently exist in.”
The Guardian gives the film 5/5 stars, describing it as “a terrifying, white-knuckle comeback” and and “immaculately constructed nightmare procedural that ticks down the minutes from an atomic bomb’s launch to its detonation.”
In a 4/5 star review, the BBC said The Hurt Locker director builds “excruciating tension”, saying “It’s a characteristically authentic, riveting and chilling drama” from the filmmaker.
The Independent also gave it a strong 4/5 writeup, calling it “The most entertaining movie about mass destruction since Dr Strangelove”: “This is a white knuckle ride of a movie in which the tension is ratcheted up to near breaking point early on, and then simply keeps on rising. German composer Volker Bertelmann’s ominous score, heavy on the strident strings, puts viewers on edge even more.”
Roger Ebert.com was also a fan, noting: “Bigelow’s ability to take a series of hypotheticals and render them into narrative actuality has never been more pinpoint accurate or merciless.”
Another 4/5 review came from the UK’s Daily Telegraph, which called it a “hair-raising thriller” and “a razor-sharp Armageddon procedural”.
GQ also had praise for the film, describing it as “brilliantly constructed and gripping as hell”, but mused on its Oscar chances: “The film may prove too limited emotionally for Oscars voters – though it is so brilliantly stitched together by editor Kirk Baxter that you struggle to imagine anything else taking home that particular award. But as Netflix movies go, this is pretty much as good as it gets – the last thing you’ll do during this two-hour block is look at your phone. And that is a step in the right direction, at least.”
Time Out is yet another 4/5 star review, saying of Idris Elba: “Elba is solid in his second POTUS role of the year, after the immeasurably wackier Heads of State, although the final stretch lacks the piano-wire tautness of what came before.”
Producers are Greg Shapiro, Bigelow, and Oppenheim. EPs are Brian Bell and Sarah Bremner. The project marks Bigelow’s first movie since the 2017 thriller Detroit.