Lately, I’ve been trying really hard to give Angel Studios the benefit of the doubt. Despite my last review of theirs being a real stinker, I still want to believe they can make something great. Most of their films are crowdfunded (and selected) by their cooperative of members, and that kind of collaboration within the creative process can lead to some great stuff being greenlit, and maybe stories that wouldn’t have otherwise had the budget to hit the big screen.
The Brink of War is their most recent release and tells the true story of the Iceland Summit between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. Featuring the powerhouse duo of Jeff Daniels and Jared Harris as the two leaders, the trailer sets up the film as a tense Sorkin-esque thriller where all of humanity hangs in the balance.
Unfortunately, the actual film never delivers on this, despite the director’s attempts to create shots reminiscent of Martin Scorsese, Yorgos Lanthimos, Taika Waititi, and others. The script is poor, and the characters don’t evolve much beyond expositing at each other for most of the film’s bloated two-hour runtime. Basically, this film is rage bait for cinephiles.
This makes most of the film tough to get through, despite the premise. Daniels and Harris are doing their best with what they’re given, but it’s a very poor script with no tension and loaded with political jabs meant to make their intended audience guffaw in response. Can’t be a boring movie if you’re chuckling about the breadlines, right? Right?
Despite some well-directed moments, the opening shot is absolutely egregious, and I need to talk about it. The film was shot on location in Iceland (notably at the site of the actual historic summit) but the opening moment/climax is shot on green screen, and it looks terrible. I don’t know if they simply forgot to shoot this scene on location, but the final version had no business being in their movie. Compared to the rest of the film, it looks like an insurance commercial.
The biggest issue I have with this film though is that it has no vision. It has no consistent idea or theme other than “communism is bad.” While having an ideology is fine, it just needs more. We should feel something about the characters or the story, and we don’t, because they’re just the vehicle for the film’s very simple message.
Before this film aired, I saw trailers for three other Angel Studios projects all coming out this year (Jimmy, Drummer Boy and Runner) and I’ll just say it: they all look pretty bad. I honestly believe if Angel Studios spent a lot of their resources on one really good movie instead of several mediocre ones, they may be able to one day create something that doesn’t live and die on streaming. Good riddance.
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