The East

Truth is stranger than fiction so it's hard for a two-hour fictional film to compete with real examples of immorality, greed, and corruption that are rife within corporate America. Documentaries such as Enron, Who Killed the Electric Car, and Food, Inc. are more powerful because they're real. However, The East is solidly produced and acted as it dishes up fictional corporate misdeeds and misinformation perpetrated in the name of power and profit. The East humanizes its activist characters by giving insight into their varied and often mainstream pasts and into what fuels their battles against the system. Activists can be people too. At two hours, The East is limited in the number of corporate transgressions its activists can pursue and attempt to undermine, but it is an entertaining reminder of the type of malfeasance that goes on as it builds to a suspenseful and thought-provoking end. Good movie, not great, but worth watching.

I generally get tired of films pushing politics throughout their story with all this left-wing, right-wing crap, that because of the focus of the group of people who make that type of film, so becomes an entanglement of an unnecessary debate with audiences and critics, that the film itself becomes lost. The East tells its message straight and clear and understands that most will agree with a majority of its ideas, but never loses sight of the story and the characters its wants to portray.

The East follows an operative for a PI firm who is handpicked to infiltrate an extreme anarchist group who focus their sights on major corporations for the crimes they have committed on humanity. I agree that that basic synopsis probably will make a few shy away from seeing it, but I don't believe anyone will come out of the film in a heated debate with the next person on its political issues, however timely. It has a great perspective instead on what we as individuals value most. It never allows itself to succumb to any political wash-over, but instead takes a side for the characters and where they stand as people that manages to invest us in the emotional elements rather than just straight ideals.

Brit Marling plays the operative at hand and also co-wrote the screenplay with up-and-comer, Zal Batmanglij. They both worked together and the equally excellent Sound of My Voice last year and its apparent that they have continued to build their ground in their respective fields, each finding a voice to be heard away from the mainstream flow.

The East is simply just a solid, taut and investing thriller that values telling the story of its characters, while keeping the political stance to the side and also having fun tangling the audience up its in web.

Since 2011's Another Earth landed at Sundance and nabbed the Special Jury Prize, Brit Marling has quickly cemented herself as one of the most exciting and challenging new talents. When she feels a genre hasn't been explored to its full potential, she takes it further. When she notices women her age are typecast in boring roles, she writes her own. She's a visionary filmmaker with something to say and the talent and ambition to make sure she's heard - her second collaboration with director and co- writer Zal Batmanglij, The East, is no exception, and is perhaps the peak of her already illustrious career so far.

The film follows Jane Owen (Marling), an undercover security agent, as she leaves behind her doting boyfriend (Jason Ritter) to infiltrate an eco-terrorist group known as The East, who have publicly targeted massive corporations for their covered-up crimes against humans and nature. In between reports to her icy, amoral boss (Patricia Clarkson), Jane slowly grows fascinated with the group, its morals and goals, and its core (Alexander Skarsgard, Ellen Page, Shiloh Fernandez, Toby Kebbell), observing with a mix of horror and infatuation as they execute their violent "jams" on the corporations' key members.

The East will inevitably draw comparisons to Sean Durkin's Martha Marcy May Marlene because of the subject matter and its ingenue leading lady.The East is not as much of a psychological profile, but there are interesting similarities - like Durkin, Batmanglij and Marling never really villainize or condemn their subects; instead, they make a point of showing the East's appeal. We, the audience, begin to understand why these troubled young people would find solace and purpose in what is essentially a band of guerrilla terrorists, and, in turn, why Jane is so hypnotized by them. It makes for an uncomfortably provocative watch: as we learn more about the characters, their backgrounds, and the corporations' crimes (which are based in fact), it's hard to determine who the "bad guys" are. I saw the film at a festival where Batmanglij gave a short Q&A after and he revealed that he, Marling, and Page had lived with similar groups (without the terrorism) before and were sympathetic with the East's cause, if not their methods. The sympathy shows in the writing and most of the time that's a good thing, but there are times when it gets closer to bias and muddies otherwise brilliant storytelling - but these are blips in the overall outstanding product.

Marling is, as always, enigmatic and hypnotizing, but she is an observer and lets the other characters do the talking; it takes highly skilled actors to command empathy for villains and the cast doesn't disappoint. Alexander Skarsgard is incredibly charismatic and persuasive, and he fills in the blanks admirably whenever his development is cut short. Patricia Clarkson surprises in an unusual role for her - she hints that her character might be more evil than any of the terrorists she is hunting. Jason Ritter and Hillary Baack are affecting in their small roles, and Julia Ormond dominates her five minutes of screen time - her last scene is perhaps the most haunting in the film. Ellen Page gives a career-best performances and reminds us that she's a force to be reckoned with if only she were given the chance to show off more often. She commands the screen with intimidating animosity from the second she walks on screen and has some genuinely heartbreaking moments later on.

In spite of occasional misfires, the screenplay is exceptional especially in its efficiency: there is so much going on that there isn't much time to devote to individual characters or relationships - Marling and Ritter's suffers the most - but Marling and Batmanglij make every second count as each line is weighted with enough subtext to tell us the stories implicitly and thoroughly nevertheless. The major characters are very well-drawn; even though we only get glimpses into Skarsgard, Page and Kebbell's pasts, we feel we know them inside and out. The film moves along at a fluid, adrenaline-pumping pace and the tension is genuine and organic rather than forced - the audience's investment in the story grows from affection for the characters and connection with their ideals rather than cheap editing tricks, manipulative music and stylized lighting or sound. Music is used so sparsely that when The National's "About Today" plays over a silent montage of Marling's character breaking down, its emotional weight surprises and stuns. The ending is comparatively underwhelming, but the overall package is one of the best, most provocative thrillers in years and firmly establishes Batmanglij and Marling as a sensational and important pairing.

Certainly a good subject and a touchy one. We have several movies treating this subject, the environment, the corruption. When I left the cine I asked me the question : Could this be true and yes, certainly. And that its all about, if you leave the cine and keep on thinking about the subject and discuss it with others. I didn't knew that much about Brit Marling and this film awakened my interest. Good acting and she has many opportunities to go as actress, writer or director. The movie is a must see, but ... it is not that much of a thriller, the action scenes are rather short and don't ask that much of attention and that is what it is meant to be, because the movie target is to show us how Brit Marling integrates in the East, her feelings, her changes in ideas. But also in the emotional part I find this movie rather general. It seems that they don't want to go a bit in depth on the subject, keep it simple for the spectator, the client. Keep it mainstream. So, it is not an action movie, but either enters in difficult matters. The subject is although unique and a must see. The end of the movie. Seems that it was time to finish and so they did, a bit in a rush.

The East: an environmentalist group following the philosophy of an eye for an eye. The movie follows Sarah, an agent trying to infiltrate The East. The movie was almost always exciting, but showed more of the emotional side of the characters.

I had a lot of fun with this one. At times I found myself holding my breath, and couldn't figure out why. The movie had a good flow to it, with enough exciting parts to keep you from falling asleep. My biggest complaint with the movie is it didn't go as deep into the emotional sides of things and felt like it wanted to be more of a mainstream movie because of it.