If society survives, the first thing that Warner Bros. needs to do is cast Betty Gilpin as the new Dirty Harry. Because after the press screening of The Hunt — the moderately controversial horror-comedy-thriller that got delayed from last August after several people got up in arms about its plot points — the first thing I had written after character names and establishing thoughts in my notes was: “Give everything to Betty Gilpin.” Perhaps you only know Gilpin, as I did, from Netflix’s delightful G.L.O.W., or from that unholy mess of a sequel/reboot to The Grudge back in January (a structurally brilliant film that just did not work on any other level).
At this point (and this is immediately after a press screening, so the adrenaline and COVID-19 terror is considerable), I would call Gilpin’s turn as Crystal May Creasy as iconic as Lupita Nyong’o in Us, Toni Collette in Hereditary and Florence Pugh in Midsommar. But none of those women got to turn a perfectly appointed Food 52 kitchen into a symphony of ass-kicking, and Gilpin does so here with aplomb and glee.
Which brings me to the other main point from my notes: The Hunt has the best girl-fight since Gina Carano and Michelle Rodriguez in Furious 6, which was itself the best girl-fight since Russ Meyer stopped making movies. Gilpin and her opponent, two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank (this isn’t a surprise or spoiler because she’s in the trailer and online ad campaign), throw down in a no-holds-barred kitchen deathmatch that delivers everything you could want.
The hook is a riff on "The Most Dangerous Game" for the modern political era, but that’s not exactly what’s being pitched to audiences. Advance furor had posited that the film was about "liberal elites" (which is an awkward phrase that illustrates the tonal balancing act it aimed for) hunting down "deplorables" for fun, which it kind of is and kind of isn’t — for reasons that I neither want to spoil (because I’m not an asshole) nor get into (because it’s complicated and involves a lot of parallel structure issues and I don’t have the space to diagram it). Just know that if you go into this film with any specific political agenda, you will be annoyed.
That said, if you go in eager for some peppy slaughter and a truly great exploitation film performance, you’ll be just fine. There are some great character actors along for the ride, with Macon Blair (writer-director of the modern classic I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore, streamable right now on Netflix) and Glenn Howerton (The Strangers, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) bringing the exact right amount of unctuousness as needed. A big welcome back is due the great Amy Madigan, who leaves the viewer asking, wholeheartedly, “Where has she been all this time?” And Sturgill Simpson pops up in a role that could be charitably described as Orlando trash and makes it a truly memorable turn.
Director Craig Zobel made one of the most upsetting films of the 2010s with 2012’s Compliance, as well as Great World of Sound, one of the Aughts’ great music films. Throw in work with Of Montreal and Iggy Pop, and you’ve got a director with an expansive palette. He’s got a gift for keeping the material zipping along, and it’s a necessary choice, because the script (by Nick Cuse and Damon Lindelof) starts sliding apart if you stop and examine it for too long. As it is, this is a fun enough diversion for anyone looking for some mayhem that’s at least trying to have some thoughts, regardless of how well they pull them off. And again, give everything to Betty Gilpin — she is so very good (and so very weird) in this film. Imagine a Brundlefly of Brittany Murphy in Clueless and Geena Davis in The Long Kiss Goodnight and you have a bit of an idea.
It’s a shame that the film itself isn’t as good as Gilpin’s performance or the aforementioned girl fight. As a shocking political satire, it doesn’t really work, mainly because like Joker and The Dark Knight Rises and (all too often) South Park, it wants to be all things to all audiences and handicaps itself from actually believing in anything. It also makes a lot more sense now how people were so freaked out without having seen it, because if anyone had actually seen the film, they would certainly have mellowed out. The Hunt is no kind of grand political statement, and it would have been so much stronger if it had been.
