The Hunt

Craig Zobel’s film opens by hiding its protagonist. Familiar faces step forward in turn and are eliminated within minutes; only then does the camera settle on Crystal, played by Betty Gilpin. Most of the 90 minutes goes into that elimination rather than backstory; the conspiracy itself is explained in one conversation near the end. The script is by Nick Cuse and Damon Lindelof, who worked together on The Leftovers. Behind it sit Richard Connell’s story The Most Dangerous Game and George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Zobel describes the aim as poking both sides equally. It was shot in New Orleans in spring 2019, set for 27 September 2019. After the attacks in El Paso and Dayton the networks pulled the trailer, and after remarks by the US president targeting a film without naming it, Universal cancelled the release on 10 August 2019. The new date was 13 March 2020, cinemas closed within days in the pandemic, and Universal put it into homes a week later, a 48 hour rental at 19.99 dollars. A good fit if you accept a film that loads its whole account onto one long kitchen fight at the end and pitches violence at a cartoon level. Not for you if you want a coherent argument from political satire, because it slaps both sides and reaches no verdict.