150 Word Review: 'A House Of Dynamite' (2025)
The day of
Director Kathryn Bigelow is Hollywood’s chief chronicler of the War on Terror, winning Oscars for 2008’s The Hurt Locker and 2012’s Zero Dark Thirty. It’s too bad she never made another vampire movie, because 1987’s Near Dark is near perfect.
Now she’s directing A House of Dynamite, a muted yet well-paced revival of the long-forgotten Cold War–era cautionary tale. An unknown adversary launches a nuclear missile, and the government scrambles. Missile defenses are activated, military acronyms are rattled off, and grim-faced officials stare helplessly at screens. The crisis is examined from three POVs, including Idris Elba’s thoughtful POTUS.
Bigelow wants to speak to the moment, but that would require a White House that is sober and focused, not petty and ideologically scatterbrained. The message? The U.S. is vulnerable to rogue nukes. Got it. I’ll add that threat to the list. The ending is the beginning, which some audiences may resent.
Loved that film but started panicking when I asked myself how the current administration would handle such an incident.
I liked it until I didn’t