I am totally clutching at straws on this one, but we are using Odessa Young’s surname for the Y for the ABC Film Challenge.
Writer: Sam Levinson (Screenplay)
Starring: Odessa Young, Abra, Suki Waterhouse, Hari Nef, Colman Domingo, Danny Ramirez
Plot: After a malicious data hack exposes the secrets of the perpetually American town of Salem, chaos descents and four girls must fight to survive, while coping with the hack themselves.
Tagline – You asked for it, America.
Runtime: 1 Hour 48 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Social Media Nightmares
Story: Assassination Nation starts as we meet the four high school friends Lily (Young), Em (Abra), Sarah (Waterhouse) and Bex (Nef) who enjoy to party most nights and are stuck in social media crazed world, using the internet to get their thoughts over, when the Mayor of their town gets hacked, they along with the rest of the town get his dirty photos and personal information, which leads to him being disgraced committing suicide because of it.
The next target hit close to home, the principal who falsely sees his life come crashing down because of the mob mentality and they Lily gets her own warming she is next, making the friends the target of the next hate mob.
Thoughts on Assassination Nation
Characters – Lily is the leader of the four friends, she has a secret form the rest and pushes the rest to be more open and pushy in their relationship, she is one of the few people that sees the bigger picture about the controversy hitting the town, she has become a target which will see her life change forever. Em, Sarah and Bex are her best friends, they don’t have much more about them, they have small parts about who they are, they will stay loyal to Lily through the problems.
Performances – When we look at the performances, the four girls do have genuine chemistry, which is important to everything going on, Odessa Young in the leading role shows just how confident the girls can be and how quickly this can become shattered through social media and finger pointing.
Story – The story here follows a teenage girl that sees her life turned upside down when she becomes the latest target of a social media hack which is crippling careers in the town and now ruining her reputation. The story does get to look at just how dangerous social media can be, how quickly people will believe and jump on any bandwagon against the person being targeted even if they have done nothing wrong, one character gets branded a child abuser for having photos of his own daughter in the bath from infant age. This story does contain the extremes of how far the people will go for this to become bigger than it needs to be and shows how fighting back is the only way to make it out with any reputation left in tack. I am still not completely sure why this ended up going towards murder though, it seems too extreme.
Action/Horror – The action here follows how the fight to survive becomes a reality for the girls, when they become targets of the mob, this does show the extremes in the horror about what is happening to the girls.
Settings – The film is set in a town called Salem, which is slightly on the nose because of the whole witch trial behavior being thrown out by the locals.
Special Effects – The effects used are saved for the horror elements, which get to focus on just how deadly everything ends up becoming for the girls.
Scene of the Movie – The fact that this could easily become a reality.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – The sudden extremes seem to happen way too quickly.
Final Thoughts – This is a warning shot a social media, showing us just how quickly things, rumours and crowds can jump on people looking to ruin their lives, when there is an easier answer to what has been happening.
Overall: This is a pure social Media warning.
