A House of Dynamite

Dynamite is at its best in its first third, when the cast is learning their world is metaphorically and possibly literally falling apart—surreptitious calls to loved ones, maddening arguments about meaningless procedure, and failsafe after failsafe failing to save. Then we learn we’re supposed to sit through two more casts going through the same emotional journey and landing at the same spot, each section less affecting than the previous. The ending attempts to encapsulate the uncertain horror of the scenario but is more likely to be read as a filmmaker’s indecisiveness (or, worse, laziness). A film of unrealized potential.

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