Nuclear Near-Miss Drama ‘A House of Dynamite‘ Offers Chillingly Mundane Take on Armageddon
Toronto – Kathryn Bigelow’s new film, A House of Dynamite, currently streaming on Hulu, depicts a harrowing scenario: a false alarm triggering a potential nuclear launch. Though, a recent review in Teh Ringer argues the film’s approach to global catastrophe is surprisingly understated, ultimately falling short of its potential.
The film focuses on the tense hours within a North dakota missile silo as personnel grapple with the possibility of an incoming attack and the agonizing decision of whether to retaliate. While praised for its absorbing tension,critic Adam Nayman contends that Bigelow’s film suffers from a narrow,American-centric outlook and a frustrating lack of broader geopolitical context. “We don’t think about it, we don’t talk about it. And it’s an unthinkable situation,” said Idina Menzel, who stars in the film, in a recent interview with Deadline. “So, my hope was to maybe move it to the forefront of our lives.”
Nayman’s review highlights a critical flaw: the script’s sympathetic portrayal of the U.S. as a reluctant nuclear power, a narrative that clashes with historical realities. The film also avoids specifying whether the potential attack was accidental or deliberate,hindering any meaningful takeaway beyond “raw,primal terror.” This deliberate elision of apocalyptic spectacle, unlike Christopher Nolan’s approach in Oppenheimer, is described as a “high-handed cop-out,” resulting in a film that, despite its slick execution, ultimately feels banal in its exploration of the line between sanity and catastrophe.
Adam Nayman is a film critic, teacher, and author based in Toronto; his book ‘The Coen Brothers: this Book Really Ties the Films Together’ is available now from Abrams.
