The Hunt (2020) ***

 

Given all that has happened since January 2020, you could be forgiven for forgetting that 2019 even existed. If you scrape your memory, though, you may recall some controversy about a movie that Universal Pictures tried to release. “The Hunt” was a satire about political divisions in the U.S., and the film trailer ran headlong into those same divisions. Before anyone had a chance to see it, Donald Trump and his minions tweeted complaints about the movie, and then some maniac murdered a bunch of people in an El Paso, TX Walmart. Universal decided the timing was all wrong, and canceled their Fall release date. After things had cooled down, they scheduled a new release, for March 2020. You know how that turned out. Covid-19 shut down most theaters, and left the others mostly empty, and “The Hunt” was seen by almost no one. That's a shame, because it's not a bad movie.

The plot is that a group of liberal elites kidnap several conservatives, whom they refer to as “deplorables,” release them on a large manor, then hunt them for sport. You can see why this raised some hackles, but people, including Donald Trump, who complained about it without seeing it just showed their ignorance. “The Hunt” is a violent, humorous satire about the deep rift between Red State and Blue State America, and it does not pick on one side more than the other. Each side gets a chance to show its ass in this farce. Many reviewers have complained about this both-sides-ism, complaining that the film is nihilistic and refuses to make a political statement. I think these reviewers are just blinded to their own political partisanship, and they cannot enjoy a movie that fails to represent their own side of the partisan divide.

Even more than extreme political division, “The Hunt” is about the pitfalls of the online rage machine via which anyone who says anything that offends anyone, anywhere is subject to extreme levels of online bullying. This bullying can lead to people losing their sanity, their job, or their life. Every now and then, we hear about a suicide, and everyone tut tuts. But the next time someone expresses an unpopular opinion, there are always plenty of keyboard warriors waiting to crucify them, emboldened by numbers, anonymity, and their own self-righteousness.

Is “The Hunt” going to fix any of these problems? Not likely, but it's an enjoyable diversion, and star Betty Gilpin is foxy and entertaining. The toughest part for most will be deciding whether to be offended or not.

3 stars out of 5