Hooptober XII | 9/31 | Decades 5/9 | 2020s | Cults 2/3
An American social psychologist named Ben ascends the stairs of an apartment building in Berlin. He meets with a shut-in through her door. Her apartment is full of food, trash, and dirty dishes, and her only friends are those she meets online. She feels like the world is coming to an end, so why bother going out? Nature is attacking the cities for their reckless treatment of her. The way Ben sees it, she and people like her see everyone around them as dangerous people who will only confirm their persecution fantasies. Their fear leads to a need for truth and order, driving them to seek groups that exploit this need and create a false sense of belonging.
Ben receives a call from Max, calling him out to the site of a mass suicide. Nina, a detective on site, gives them a rundown of what happened. They find a note which states, among other things, “Sacrifice is redemption. We return to the source so she may live.” Ben is convinced it’s a cult, but Nina isn’t so sure. Ben gets a text from his daughter, Mazzy, whose plane from San Diego just landed at Berlin Brandenburg Airport. He can’t pick her up, so he tells her to take a train.
On the train, Mazzy receives help navigating from a boy named Martin. People carry signs reading, “Sacrifice is Redemption.” The two get on, exchange numbers, and get off at the same stop. After a disastrous school year following her parents’ divorce, Ben has brought Mazzie to Berlin to attend school for the semester. The following day, Martin meets up with Lotte, who is obviously the shut-in from the beginning of the movie, because Martin is so proud of her for getting the courage to come. They attend an environmental activism group led by a woman named Hilma.
We see where all this is going, right?
The film explores individualism versus community. Community provides a common place of mutual care and shared resources. Individualism protects one from cults and other means in which groups will prey on people’s thirst for community. How does one find a place in the world without being pulled down into its chaos?
Ben wrote a book about the science of loneliness, focusing on the effects of isolation on the human mind. Now, in Berlin, he is writing a book about the power of groupthink, aiming to balance his previous book by addressing the danger of like-minded people exchanging counter-societal theories. Nina seems to have a disconnect where, if someone believes in what they’re doing, it’s not a radical act because it gives their life meaning. Which probably means she’s involved with the eco-terrorists, no?
I can’t help but think of First Reformed, which also centered on an eco-terrorist group, but that movie made an effort to understand and pull us into that perspective. From the outset, this movie suggests that anyone who cares about the environment is probably in a cult.
Eric Bana is profoundly bad in this movie. He’s never been a good actor, but the script calls for someone who can deliver sarcasm and warmth in a way he seems wholly incapable of mustering. Every line is flat, and every gesture feels rehearsed to the point of meaningless routine.
Sadie Sink is good, making the most of a weak script. She and Jonas Dassler, who plays Martin, have decent chemistry! Like Bana, she also seems desperate for direction as she tries to make up the difference, which means her emotional scenes feel over-the-top.
Written and directed by Ridley Scott’s daughter, Jordan Scott, the film wants to be a taught psychological thriller, but it doesn’t want to do any of the work. Instead, it relies on genre cliches and predictable structures.
I don’t care if a movie is predictable — it’s not what happens, but how it happens that makes a movie entertaining. Here, it happens exactly like you expect it to, including the “twist” in the third act.
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