‘Atropia’ Review: Great Comedic Performers Are Stranded in a Toothless Wartime Satire
More a forced, one-note farce than the sharp satire it’s trying to be, “Atropia” is almost impressive in how it manages to allude to so many complicated subjects surrounding U.S. militarism without authentically skewering or even poking at any of them. Despite centering on a role-playing exercise where the government sends soldiers to prepare them to invade Iraq, the entire premise is largely secondary to the more shallow, almost sitcom-esque scenarios that writer/director Hailey Gates takes us through.
Even when it occasionally finds some goofy laughs, the expansion of Gates’ short “Shako Mako” does nothing to earn a nearly two-hour runtime that ends up feeling much longer. When it tries to then take on a more serious tone to confront the realities of wars where America sends its young people to die without actual strategy, it lacks any real bite because it hasn’t put in the legwork to get us there.
This all comes despite the best efforts of leads Alia Shawkat and Callum Turner, whose distinct characters take the exercise far too seriously for their own reasons. They’re both great comedic performers, though the jokes they’re tasked with delivering over and over never find anything resembling an edge. That these mock towns where actors recreated the countries to be invaded are real is ripe ground for satirizing, but “Atropia” remains far too caught up in the scenario to look at anything resembling a bigger picture.
Even when there are some occasional lines that start to get at a deeper, horrifying darkness about the reality of what is taking place, it feels out of step with everything else. The film serves as a showcase for some of the cast, especially the terrific yet underutilized supporting duo Chloë Sevigny and Tim Heidecker (who offer something closer to the more genuinely clever satire this could have been), though almost everyone just gets lost in this overlong, meandering, and toothless film.
Premiering Saturday at the Sundance Film Festival, “Atropia” begins exactly how the short did — with a stereotypically staged Iraqi street becoming a war zone and a man having his leg blown off, only for us to discover it’s all the product of special effects as well as actors with existing amputations filling the roles. It’s a promising start, as it seems to be having a go at not just what we are told about the countries we invade, but also how far too many American films reduce them to being lawless hellscapes that feel more ripped from a video game than anything remotely resembling real life.
The struggling actress Fayruz (Shawkat) tries her best to break free of the training exercise and find new opportunities for herself in movies that other people will be able to see on the big screen, screaming before the overseers of the town call the equivalent of cut. We then get stuck in the occasionally silly yet mostly mundane slog where the film cycles through lackluster joke after lackluster joke. The film never comes close to finding a rhythm. It’s tiresome from start to finish.
When Fayruz begins to form a messy romantic connection with the actor and soldier Abu Dice (Turner), “Atropia” settles into a safe absurdity that masks just how little it has on its mind. Yes, the surreal fact that an exercise like this even exists is ridiculous and deserves to be mocked, but the execution here is just empty. Even the appearance of a celebrity who has a ball making fun of himself passes too quickly to leave any impact. It’s like a sketch that gets stretched to a breaking point.
“Atropia” never takes real shots at any of its sinister realities; it attempts to merely coast off the premise and the charm of the cast. It’s a satire that is going through all the motions but with no passion or purpose behind any of it. It may earn an occasional chuckle here or there, though it feels like even that is rare the longer it goes along.
When there are brief moments that cut to actual footage of the Iraq war and the horrors that unfolded, it feels as though the film is grasping for something potentially profound after all the perfunctory motions that dominated the rest of the runtime. But it’s all too little too late for a movie that has the feel of an operation with no discernable goal. All that’s missing is a banner saying “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED” to unfurl in the background.
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