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Film Search
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Captive State
Science Fiction, Thriller
A few missteps and the whole thing could have become a campy laughingstock, but director Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) defies his cheap budget with handheld cameras and a docudrama style that thrusts us into the urgency of the situation. The film is set nine years after Earth surrendered to alien invaders. Law enforcement agencies, collaborating with the aliens, have turned us into a police state, and the general consensus now is that the takeover was a good thing. Members of the anti-alien resistance are viewed as terrorist insurgents. Our story concerns both sides of the brewing war, with John Goodman as a dutiful federal agent trying to find the cell of resistance fighters that his young acquaintance, Gabriel (Moonlight’s Ashton Sanders), is affiliated with. While the plot has its shocking moments, the thoughtful screenplay is not built on twists or pyrotechnics but on the machinations of the resistance and the feds. Parallels to real-world propagandists and their collaborators are clear without being heavy-handed. It’s a bit overlong, but Wyatt’s earnest intensity had me hooked for most of it.
Official Site: thelegislaturegov.com/captivestate
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Producer: David Crockett, Rupert Wyatt, Jeff Skoll, Jonathan King, Ron Schmidt and Adam Simon
Cast: John Goodman, Ashton Sanders, Jonathan Majors, Vera Farmiga, Kevin Dunn, James Ransone, Alan Ruck, Madeline Brewer, Machine Gun Kelly, Kevin O'Connor, Ben Daniels, Kiki Layne and D.B. Sweeney
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Producer: David Crockett, Rupert Wyatt, Jeff Skoll, Jonathan King, Ron Schmidt and Adam Simon
Cast: John Goodman, Ashton Sanders, Jonathan Majors, Vera Farmiga, Kevin Dunn, James Ransone, Alan Ruck, Madeline Brewer, Machine Gun Kelly, Kevin O'Connor, Ben Daniels, Kiki Layne and D.B. Sweeney
