BEFORE: I'm not really locked in to any particular theme right now, in fact I'm all over the thematic map since transitioning out of music-based documentaries. A satire about rich people, a slow drama about a gay teacher, a kid-based drama about running away to NYC, a family-based comedy about a reclusive architect, a fantasy romance about growing up too fast, a standard Western and a vigilante action film. It's a cobbled-together chain that merely gets me closer to September and October. If I'm really reaching, there might be something there about people questioning and finding their place in the world, or in the case of "The Equalizer", helping others find their places - but that feels like a description of all films, everywhere.
This might be the plan, to have a format-less format, more or less, right up until October 1, which is just over 30 films away, believe it or not. There will be a couple back-to-school films, but the main focus is to preserve that chain, it's my lifeline to the end of the year. This one sort of seems like it borders on horror, as alien invasion films tend to ride that fine line between horror and sci-fi, but it just doesn't connect into my horror chain this year. OK, I'm lying because now I see a connection in, one cast member here is also in "It: Chapter Two", but I can't work with one connection, I need two - anyway, "It: Chapter Two" is already linked on both ends to other films, so that's not a valid connection. So it ends up here, in August, traditional dumping ground for Hollywood films that nobody's expecting much from - at least that was the case when theaters were open. We don't know what's the new normal now where Hollywood box office is concerned - I just want to get through the rest of 2020 and then we can all re-assess.
Ashton Sanders carries over from "The Equalizer 2".
THE PLOT: Set in a Chicago neighborhood nearly a decade after an occupation by an extraterrestrial force, "Captive State" explores the lives on both sides of the conflict - the collaborators and dissidents.
AFTER: Be honest, with all that 2020 has thrown our way so far, from a global pandemic to post office scandals and election tampering, no restaurants, no movies, no concerts, unemployment, protests, riots, in addition to the usual annual tropical storms, wildfires and global warming, if you woke up tomorrow and saw news of an alien invasion, how surprised would you be, on a scale from 1 (President misspells "Florida") to 10 (fire tornado full of plague squirrels). And if you learned that it was already over, our government had already made contact and sold out the whole human race, wouldn't that just be par for the course for this year? In my mind at least, this film is set in 2029, nine years after first contact, and at some point, humans working for the aliens had become the new normal. It seems all the aliens wanted was for people to build them a few underground bases, and in exchange they've offered to take selected humans off of Earth, which, come on, let's face facts, is growing less and less habitable every year.
Nope, nothing suspicious about that at all, in fact it's kind of comforting to know that our new alien overlords are rescuing humanity in the nick of time, because when left to our own devices we humans had developed a bad habit of mistreating spaceship Earth, using up its natural resources like fossil fuels while ignoring the big ball of light that blankets our planet with ample energy every day. Thinking arrogantly that we're somehow in charge of all the other species just because a 5,000-year-old book told us so, and being distracted by TV and social media instead of trying to fix anything. We're a horrible species, and in need of guidance from beyond our solar system, if you think about it. And the Legislators (interesting species name, but OK) are happy to provide support and instruction, and all they ask is that when we speak to them face-to-face, we coat ourselves with BBQ sauce. It's an odd request, maybe even a little kinky, but OK, whatever saves the planet.
To be fair, there's no depiction here of the aliens eating humans, but come on. It's strongly implied, unless they're taking humans off-planet to be in an alien zoo. (Which common alien trope is being used here? Very cagey to not nail this down, but there are only so many options.). There's still a small fraction of humanity that doesn't trust the aliens, the smart people, but it's such a small minority, what voice do they have? They're named Legislators, which makes them sound like politicians, and whenever politicians tell you they have your best interests at heart, that means they're lying, right? It's what politicians DO, so I strongly suspect these Legislators did some market research to determine what humans wanted to hear - and if that's "We're taking you away to an alien paradise where you'll be protected and well cared for, and all your dreams will come true.", then that's what they're going to say. And it's a bunch of B.S., right?
I'm not sure if it was intentional to present this as a political metaphor, but that's where we find ourselves. Though the aliens (the few times we see them) look a bit like Groot from the "Guardians of the Galaxy" if he were covered in porcupine quills, there's just no denying that they act like fascist dictators. And right now, with the news of the last few years, it's not hard to make a connection to you-know-who. What's happening in the spaceships, what's happening below ground? What's being talked about in the cabinet meetings? Same answer - we have no idea, but in the pit of our stomachs, we all know that it's not good. Same result - the common people are not important, they're just statistics on a balance sheet, another resource to exploit.
Am I overreaching? Drawing a connection that isn't there? Maybe - but there's a big scene of a "Unity Rally" here, where the supporters of the aliens get tickets to a big meet-up at Soldier Field, where the Legislators themselves might put in a "surprise" appearance. Geez, what does THAT remind me of? At a time when it's not even safe to be walking around on the streets, somebody wants to hold a rally in public where all the supporters could be exposed to danger. These aliens are so Trump-like and they don't even know it.
Thankfully these aliens have never seen "Independence Day" or "The Host" or "Operation: Los Angeles" or even picked up a newspaper from 2020, because if they had, they would know that it's not in the American people's nature to be subjugated for an extended period of time. When businesses are all boarded up, and squads of military-like personnel come on the scene to throw dissidents into unmarked vans, then on some level, we all know there's something very wrong with the country, whether that takes place in a movie or in real life. Just because aliens have landed, or there's a virus going around, that's no reason to subvert the rule of law or violate the amendments in the Constitution that protect the populace. And once there's a working resistance, you can drive that resistance underground, but that's not the same as stopping it.
This film shares something with the Western "The Ballad of Lefty Brown", in that at first it seems like there's nothing new here, it's the same elements of an alien invasion film that we've seen dozens of times before. But if you stop and think about it, you may see something new in the way that it's presented, the heroes are just regular people, nobodies for the most part, yet when they work together they're capable of accomplishing great things. One person can't take down the alien oppressors, but a whole bunch of people across the country just might have an outside chance.
Which is my way of saying - get out there and vote, or mail your ballot in early, just to be on the safe side. The evil aliens are crafty and for humanity and decency to survive, everyone has to stand up and resist to a fascist, oppressive, non-inclusive regime that sees itself as better than the average human somehow. If you don't vote, you might as well cover yourself in BBQ sauce to make yourself tastier.
Also starring John Goodman (last seen in "You Don't Know Jack"), Jonathan Majors (last seen in "White Boy Rick"), Colson "Machine Gun Kelly" Baker (last seen in "Bird Box"), Vera Farmiga (last seen in "Godzilla: King of the Monsters"), Alan Ruck (last seen in "Dreamland"), Kevin Dunn (last seen in "I Heart Huckabees"), Madeline Brewer (last seen in "Hustlers"), James Ransone (last seen in "The Next Three Days"), Yasen Peyankov (last seen in "Novocaine"), Rene L. Moreno, Avery Lee, Caitlin Ewald, Ben Daniels (last seen in "Doom"), Lawrence Grimm, Guy Van Swearingen (last seen in "The Weather Man"), Elena Marisa Flores, Ta'Rhonda Jones, Shannon Cochran, D.B. Sweeney (last seen in "Heist"), Kevin J. O'Connor (last seen in "Widows"), Eric C. Lynch (ditto), Patrese McClain (ditto), Kiki Layne (last seen in "If Beale Street Could Talk"), Chronicle Ganawah, Alex Henderson, David J. Height, Bries Vannon, Marc Grapey (last seen in "Keeping Up With the Joneses"), Michael Christopher Collins.
RATING: 5 out of 10 subdermal tracking devices
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