Film Review: The Order
Film
The Order
Director: Justin Kurzel
AGC Studios and Riff Raff Entertainment
In Theaters: 12.06
I recently found myself having a conversation at a temp job about movies, and when talking about Liam Neeson lead to a casual mention of Schindler’s List, my deskmate bristled and said “Oh, I won’t watch propaganda films.” I literally had to go throw up at this stunningly casual display of antisemitism, and the fact that such a statement is uttered so casually these days is why The Order is far more terrifying than any horror film to come out in 2024.
In 1983, a string of daring daylight bank robberies and armored car heists has left law enforcement puzzled across the Pacific Northwest. As the crimes grow more violent, Idaho FBI agent Terry Husk (Jude Law, The Talented Mr. Ripley, A.I. Artificial Intelligence) becomes convinced that the robberies are the work of a domestic terrorist group using the stolen money to fund a planned uprising against the U.S. government. Husk and his team, which includes fellow agent Joanne Carney (Jurnee Smollett, The Burial) and a young police officer, Jamie Bowen (Tye Sheridan, Ready Player One) delve into the dangerous underworld of white supremacist militias, including a growing new movement known as The Order. When outspoken Jewish radio host Allen Berg (Marc Maron, To Leslie) is murdered, it becomes clear that the rising tide of hate is very real. As The Order amasses a war chest exceeding $4 million, Husk’s pursuit leads him to Bob Matthews (Nicholas Hoult, Mad Max: Fury Road, Juror #2), a man with a vision and a deadly determination to carry it out.
Writer Zach Baylin (King Richard, Creed III) and director Justin Kurzel (Macbeth, Nitram) initially approach the material as a romantic outlaw movie, following Matthews and his gang on their heists, until it becomes chillingly clear that this would-be Robin Hood is far from a folk hero, though he clearly sees himself as this and more. Matthews and his followers seem disturbingly normal by many standards, and even the chilling sequences of teaching small children how to use guns left me feeling that I know people who would find this to be justifiable, normal and well within their constitutionally protected rights. While Husk, Carney and Bowen offer us a much needed outsider point of view, the absorbing story doesn’t play out as a mystery, because so much of the film takes place firmly in Matthews’ world, and it’s a world that has only become more mainstream in the past decade and a half.
Law is a terrific actor who elevates everything he’s in, and he brings a weary and pained yet obsessively driven quality to the character of Husk that makes him a solid protagonist. Still, the movie belongs to Hoult and his spellbinding portrayal of a charismatic young man who has convinced many that he’s both a patriot and an instrument of God, and he’s deluded no one more fully than he has himself. Smollett is powerful in the role of Carney, a Black woman who tries not to let the job feel personal yet can’t help but be sickened by what she sees, and the ever-reliable Sheridan is endearing and commanding as the idealistic young cop who went to school with many of the same men he’s now investigating.
The Order isn’t exactly escapist entertainment, especially right now (I received the digital screener on November 6 while I was still in a daze), and it may have trouble finding an audience precisely because it’s so uncomfortably topical. It’s a worthwhile and important piece of filmmaking nonetheless, made all the more unforgettable by the knowledge that you may be sitting right next to someone every day who could watch it and root for Bob Matthews. –Patrick Gibbs
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