The East

The East is a very deep and slowly paced film following the journey of a private intelligence agent who has her beliefs challenged by her latest assignment of infiltrating an anarchist group known as "The East".   The group launch attacks on large corporations to expose the lies and cover-ups surrounding the true destruction of their greed.  Their simple way of life and belief structure is quite appealing and it easy to see how the main character Sarah becomes more open to the truth of the modern world.

Written and directed by Zal Batmanglij this film definitely carries his style.  I was not aware he was the director while watching but found myself drawing many connections to another of his films - The Sound of My Voice.   If Zal is Batman then Brit Marling is definitely his Robin.  Brit co-wrote this one also and like all of their movies takes the main role in front of the camera while Zal directs.  I was interested to read after that a lot of the content of this film was taken from real experiences when Zal and Brit were without any money, hitching on trains with real anarchist groups.

Also thrown into the mix was Alexander Skarsgard (best known for True Blood series) and the lovely Ellen Page.  Skarsgard was probably the stand out for me, Page was decent as usual as well.  The role of Sarah has been tailored once again for Brit's acting strength which is definitely in the deep and dark.  She acts a lot with her eyes which for a movie like this is perfect but I would like to see a completely different role for her and see if she has more range.

On a personal note I enjoyed watching justice be served to these tyrants.  In this new information age we do have a lot of truth coming out about the real consequences of our decadent life style and 'progress' of the human race.  However I can't help but feel we are only scratching the surface and it will be a long time yet before people wake up and demand real change.

As you can see this is a movie that keeps you thinking long after it's over.  While slow paced I found it quite engrossing but I recommend watching when you're in the right mood.  If you're craving a bit of action or something lighthearted I would save this for another night.

8/10

IMDB Info