The Hunt (2020)

Directed by Craig Zobel. Starring Betty Gilpin, Hilary Swank, Ethan Suplee, Ike Barinholtz, Wayne Duvall, Amy Madigan, Glenn Howerton, Reed Birney, Macon Blair, Steve Mokate, Hannah Alline, Emma Roberts, Sturgill Simpson. [R]

Smug black comedy of a group of liberal elites who kidnap a bunch of right-wingers and hunt them for sport. Strains too hard to be provocative when it’s actually disappointingly safe—the characters on both sides of the political divide lack nuance and cling instead to stereotypes and broad-target satire. The script tries to shallowly push buttons in all directions with mixed, predictable results; rest assured that whatever bias the viewer possesses won’t be challenged in any way. Not a total waste, since there are some amusingly gory kills and a few surprises in the first half before everything starts getting sorted out. It becomes an overworn technique, but killing off the recognizable faces in the cast at regular intervals is a canny way to generate who’s-gonna-be-next suspense. The pace remains pretty brisk throughout, but the action and approach are too one-note to sustain the film even over the course of a slim hour-and-a-half. Because something of a “winner” does eventually emerge from the cesspool of carnage, the ending is an especially disappointing cop-out.

43/100