American Insurrection (2021) User Reviews

The film becomes the intolerance it claims to reject

[CinemaParadiso2022 · 2/10 · 19 March 2022]

While there are a couple of adequate aspects to the film, such as the reasonable lighting, basically competent camera work, it's a fundamentally difficult to watch movie, both in terms of the story telling which is laboured, and quite frankly the premise of the film, as pointed out in many of the negative reviews here.

The characters are unlikeable, while at the same time being one-dimensional, existing only to serve as an unsubtle representation of what the writers feel are positive characteristics - which can be summarised as being of non-European ancestry, muslim, homosexual, or politically left wing.

The counterpoint to this is a depiction of those who do not share those characteristics as being evil, to the point of being comical. Think a depiction of Germans in a 1950s movie about World War 2, in terms of subtlety.

Dialogue is uninspiring. And often unpleasant, with scene after scene of foul-mouthed diatribes by primary characters, who seek to project those ideas onto the chosen bad guys - while actually demonstrating their own internalised hatred of 'others' outside their group.

And this is where the film becomes more of a political lecture, instructing the audience that there are good people, and then there are bad people - who are white, heterosexual, and Christian. With such heavy-handedness the film manages to score an own-goal, by being the intolerance it allegedly aimed to reject.

How you treat this film will depend on your political viewpoint, for example if you are left wing, then this will serve to reinforce your world view that white, straight men are evil. If you are politically right wing, you will shake your head at the misrepresentation of reality. Everyone in between will simply switch off after 15 minutes.

What's the point?

[dgaumer · 3/10 · 22 November 2021]

No idea what the point of this was??? I spent $7 to rent this and as far as I'm concerned it was pointless... just a character study of several people in a no win situation and a little gay stuff thrown in...

Accurate..

[bluefoxniner · 4/10 · 6 May 2022]

Let's be honest here...now that the Handmaid's tale is becoming a reality, so will this. This isn't a dystopic view of America. It is what America actually IS. Normal human beings will find this uncomfortable to watch. Sub normal human beings will be triggered. And you can see clearly from the anger reviews that normal human beings are fast becoming a minority whilst the rabid far right extremists are flourishing unchallenged.

Up-side-Down world

[bmynars · 1/10 · 8 October 2021]

If there was a negative value available to rate this movie, I would give it less than 0. The premise of this movie is so absurd that it deserves to be thrown immediately in a dustbin of history.

About the reviewbombing..

[dorugamon-30225 · 25 January 2023]

The people who complain about it and give this movie a 10/10 made their accounts just to upvote this trash. As for me? I just made this one to point that out. I didn't watch the movie, but the premise is already laughable enough, you can't analyze this movie without bringing politics, it's propaganda after all, one that uses gaslighting in order to guilt trip the people this movie criticize in order to make them believe that they're oppressors, in their own country... As one user pointed "The real title: "Antifa's Imaginary World, The Movie!"".

"Accuse the other side of that which you are guilty." - Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals.

Total waste of time

[sytkkbpdz · 1/10 · 14 November 2021]

The movie has a weird story does not make any sense. I don't know what the movie is trying to prove. It has a bad plot which is dragged for 1hr 30mins. Please save yourself time don't watch this movie.

high hopes for this title however...

[ansmiths-42504 · 1/10 · 12 October 2021]

Piece of absolute feces. They could have made a film that would have set America on fire, a cult classic of the first order. A dystopian Deep State left totalitarian government being fought against by brave common red blooded American family's similar to Red Dawn. Middle American veterans and kids running and gunning against a military/police/government lead by a cast of characters startlingly similar to the democrats currently in power would have been monumental and sent the ruling class screaming on their knees. You chose the wrong side of history and just ended up with badly made movie with uninspiring cast of Hollywood cliche completely out of touch Effetism.

Open Mouths Remove all Doubt

[keneciy · 1/10 · 24 March 2022]

From start to finish something just felt off about this movie, and I usually love the dystopian future "what if" setting. Some people have mentioned the political undertones but I think the problems with this movie run deeper. My biggest gripe would probably be the dialogue so I'll just focus on that. A lot of it seemed really contrived and on-the-nose and as ridiculous as people can be out there I just can't imagine hearing anyone in real life talk or act the way they did in the movie when their lives are in danger. It's kind of bizarre actually because the acting/line delivery itself wasn't bad. Not gonna post spoilers, though I will just say that surely there were more important things to be discussing in those situations than some of the stuff they quarrelled about. It's like it was written by teenagers or something. Sorry but I'm just being honest. It really ruined what could have otherwise been an okay movie.

People focusing too much on politics

[rmebrat · 9/10 · 19 February 2022]

Yes the story revolves around the primise of "rounding up" people who are different. Something that has and most likely will happen again somewhere sometime. That being said it's not really what the film is about if you take an objective look and not get focused on the politics.

To me it's ultimately about the characters themselves. Them as individuals as well as as couples. Like everyone they are dealing with personal demons. The loss of a child, loss of family because of religion, sexuality. As couple it's the push and pull of trying to make their relationship work. The dog and the rescue I think are there to make the couples think and face their trueselves as well as their relationships. The Dog and Zabi talk and find our they aren't that different. The rescue causes one to face his true self.

All in all it's a good movie if you go in watching with an open mind.

A non-biased review

[adrenachrome · 7/10 · 8 February 2022]

Many of the reviews of this film are coming from a political view. While the film is political in nature (or at least the backdrop setting of the film is) one should judge the film on the plot, pacing, actors and so forth.

All films have issues, and this one is no different. The "villains" of the film are put together in a reasonably logical way, (I won't delve into spoilers for anything, the plot synopsis of the film should give you enough clues as to the overarching plot) so instead I will focus on the flaws of the central characters.

That is, the two couples, and the two outsiders. The film uses micro-flashbacks to get a sense of the characters and it's both overused, and underutilized.

Overused insofar as even until the end of the film, the writers are still using these flashbacks to develop the characters and in the case of the medical intern, really should have been placed more towards the beginning of the film, but at the same time, the "reveal" (so to speak) about said intern's motivations would have been spoiled, or at least blunted, had the flashbacks come sooner in the film.

Disappointing, but I can see why it was done in the way it was. Nonetheless, they are underutilized as they could have fleshed out the world (or character motivations) far more than what was presented on the screen.

So, writing is uneven, but not a dealbreaker.

Directing was pretty well done, no glaring amateur errors that I could see. The cinematography was serviceable but relied a bit too much on close-ups for my liking.

The overall plot was pretty good I felt. No cheap twists, no Hollywood forced happy endings, only a natural progression in plot from the position the characters are thrust into, so score one for that.

The music score was a little too brash in places (especially towards the end scenes) for my taste, but it was largely serviceable.

Amusingly, this film is a sort of counterpoint to the 2020 film "The Hunt" which is currently sitting at a (overrated IMO) 6.5 whereas this film is running a 2.1, which is underrated.

If you can set your political views aside, you will find a tight little thriller worth a 7 out of 10.

What a mess

[ivan_dmitriev · 3/10 · 24 March 2022]

The movie is bad, but not because it's "political" or because "it tells the truth".

It's bad because they made a zeitgeist movie but somehow lost their production rights in the middle, or something... so it was like whipped cream - basically having no shelf life it meant when it came out it's just became concentrated cringe.

> - Am I the first Muslim I ever met?

> - Of course not, I served in Afghanistan!

But then it's meaningfully subverted, however I guffawed > - I mean, like really met and talked to it's a very radio-play in the moment movie which just doesn't work most of the time.

The Muslim Woman Character (Zabi) is doing all the heavy lifting in the movie, and is the only person who's ... you know ... humanlike 🙂 here and ... but the geniuses that the writers are, we only hear them calling each other by name in the first 2 minutes of the movie and then never again.

The scene with the Orange guard ( literally dressed in orange caps and parkas - why not just say "Trump" and the MAGA at this point, because it's painfully obvious) - They've come to see their rural farmer friend - RacistFarmer Then they're like : WOW BUBBA LOOKED DIFFERENT WHEN WE CAME TO SEE HIM LAST TIME. HEY LOOK IT'S THE WRONG BUBBA! TAKE'IM! Then they return the Fake Bubba, but not before introducing him to their local LGBTQ-extermination Atrocity Amusement Park. (the acting of traumatized Jared was good, but otherwise - no)

They just played all the action and horror movie clichés, but with gay people.

Good jerb breaking those stereotypes 🤦

The only person who otherwise has an oft-repeated name is David they like how it sounds "DAVID" 59 minutes in they have a scene where they have a dialogue to name everyone. Congrats on that!

Then this gem of a bomb of a dialogue:

> Zabi ( Muslim Woman )- How long did you serve?

> Gabe(Dog/Racistfarmer) - Two tours!

> Zabi - Thank you for trying to serve the world! Thank you for your service!

Goddam the scene of David is having second thoughts about being gay while cheating on his partner (?) and the minidrone is back - a sex-scanning minidrone - a minindrone looking for hot gay sex in the forest - it was literally attracted by David cheating on his partner, like, this is disaster-writing

"gay?" "automatically cheat on partner with another gay dude!" Just when I thought it wouldn't get any worse.

At least some motivation for "David having cringy second thoughts about being gay", because David apparently donated to the Dictator in chief's electoral campaign in exchange of pardoning student loans. And because of this David removed his tattoo he did together with his partner (?) because it was all stupid, and "I wanted to pass for a hetero anyway"

And since in all the movies Black characters die first, so IT MUST MANDATORY that the only two characters which survive are "Nonwhite" (and here we also have the strange US tendency to think that Muslims are somehow nonwhite...)

And the reveal of David and Zabi dating and David being poly and bisexual, I guess...

The only thing missing here is the freaking fursecution, and I say that as a dyed in the wool furry uwu

Who wrote this? Who wrote this sh....

More white guilt.....awesome

[craig79792000 · 1/10 · 3 May 2022]

Your typical "straight white male" = bad and "gay brown man"=good. This could have really been something if the producers and writers cared to tell a story instead of having an axe to grind. Too bad. Wasted effort.

If antifa made a film

[fonas-09056 · 2/10 · 3 May 2022]

This one gave me more enjoyment than it should have because it's just so cringe and you know that the writers really thought they were being clever. It's like watching a person lacking in self awareness dunking on themselves over and over again while thinking they look cool. If I have one thing nice to say about the film its that i think some of the actors are pretty talented (especially Michael Raymond-James and Nadine Malouf). I had seen Raymonde-James before in some other stuff I liked and the Gabe scenes were probably my favourite... and despite the garbage plot i found myself liking the Zabi/Gabe characters the most. The conversations in the barn were like a refuge of sanity in contrast to the idiot-level takes spouted in the rest of the film. Maybe that was the point, who knows? Either way i wouldnt recommend this to very many people because there are just so many things wrong with the plot and overall message being pushed.

What A Stinker

[marygodfree · 4 March 2022]

A good premise. Timely and terrifying. Too bad they couldn't follow thru with a plausible script. Why in the world would people who want a White, Straight, christian America prevent those who are not from leaving the country?? Major plot holes, lousy character development, tedious dialogue. I couldn't wait for it to end.

What do we want?

[kosmasp · 4/10 · 3 July 2022]

And there is no pun intended here. It is not so much a philosophical question, but rather: what do you want to from the movies you watch? Do you want them to be different? To make you guess where they are going instead of being able to guess every single beat? And yes there is predictable things in this too of course, but it is quite out there overall - again no pun intended.

Considering some of the decisions made recently by the Supreme Court in America, I wouldn't call this future right here that dystopian or too much in the future. Fortunately there are still more than enough people fighting the good fight. And by that I mean that metaphorically speaking, not actual fighting.

Actual fighting and action scenes can be seen here though. Because after all this is supposed to be a movie that even with the heart on the right place and a good message, has to entertain you (while schooling you - which admitedly is not the best plan). There are also some flaws in the acting department and some other things you have to suspend your disbelief with ... if you are able ... then maybe you'll find the idea is strong enough to carry the whole thing too.

What were they thinking making this in 2021?

[palicit · 4/10 · 25 October 2021]

Oh man. I don't know how to feel about this one and it's driving me nuts! I want to like it because as a standalone film it was good, but because it is so obviously a left-wing circle jerk of nonsense I can't bring myself to rate it positively. I even watched their YouTube watch party thing and sure enough they believe in all the usual wacky things that the modern left does. It's not subtle at all and the entire thing just oozes insincerity. If they really wanted to make it a message about finding common ground they should have first ventured outside their own echo chamber (yes, both sides have one!) and learned what the people they're depicting really think. The prisoner in this film just seemed like a caricature to bounce lefty talking points off of with none of the opposing arguments you'd find in reality. "But I'm a muslim!" Hahaha.

Horrible waste of my time

[cheshiresniper · 1/10 · 14 February 2022]

Just don't watch it is horrible. The movie mars attacks is by far better written and had better acting then this garbage. Don't waste your money or time watching this garbage.

From a non American perspective

[Hotdesio · 4/10 · 11 May 2022]

There's a few problems with this film and the first is the title because unless I missed it, where was the insurrection? It would seem this small oversight didn't pass the network by as it now seems to be called "The Volunteers" which, whilst not being inaccurate, is a bit lame. The second problem is the story, not the premise but the actual story. In a dystopian world where you are hunted if you are 'different', most of the movie is spent with the individuals trying to come to terms with their own personal problems. Ordinarily this would be OK as we need a backstory to care about the people in the house but for whatever reason, maybe the acting, more likely the script, I didn't really care who lived or died. I should say at this point that I am a European so have no skin in the game when it comes to 'whose side are you on". What's clear though from reading many of the reviews is that most of them, especially the ones with 1 star ratings, are from people who a) didn't watch the film and b) would refer to themselves as a Republican. Now, this for me is where it gets interesting because I'm trying to work out what is it specifically that drives these people to slam the movie. Most of the negative reviews seem to say things like "what a load of woke rubbish" presumably from the standpoint that what the movie depicts could never ever happen in their God fearing country.

Here's the thing though, I'm aware that a large percentage of Americans don't follow politics that closely but with the recent revelations about abortion rights set to be overturned, 'don't say gay' bills being passed, walls being built to keep out 'the others' and books being banned (even maths books) that (we are told) have elements of Critical Race Theory in them (they don't but that doesn't seem to matter), surely you can see that you are already on the road to this dystopian future?

Back to the movie, props to Nadine Malouf as the standout actress and hopefully she'll get some better movies as a result of this. The rest, not so much. So in conclusion, it's not a great film, probably a 4/10 and it kind of lost it's way at the end as many small budget films do and If you want a better version of how things could pan out for the USA, watch the Handmaids Tale but instead of infertility being the driving force to make woman have babies, swap that out for "you had sex (without contraception because that's next on the list to be banned), you got pregnant, you MUST now have the baby" (without any financial help from the state because this is the USA! We're not like the rest of the World)

Now, before you hit the down vote ask yourself, do you really disagree with what I've said or are you only down voting this because I've said something that's triggered you? OK, I'm just messing with you, of course you weren't going to think about it, you can hit the down vote now.

I tried...for 30 minutes

[edblackham · 1/10 · 1 July 2022]

Quite often I like to try and watch a movie without knowing anything about it. It was a free Showtime weekend, so I taped it without knowing anything about it. 25 minutes them I had to go to ImBD to find out what was the problem with this movie. Five more minutes and it was even more garbage so I stopped watching it. It's amazing when free should mean they should have to pay me to watch this movie. Crap like this makes it so I can't watch a movie without knowing about it before hand. I watched a different movie two days ago and it was amazing and I had never heard of it. Sadly, most of the crap that comes up for free on Showtime is exactly that, crap.

Does it make you uncomfortable?

[mrshannongordon-78407 · 8/10 · 14 March 2022]

This movie speaks volumes to the world we live in today where fear and hate exists for race and orientation.

As a straight Christian white male the beginning of the movie had me thinking this was gonna be hate speech against my race and sexual orientation but it wasn't, that was my fear.

This was a movie about compassion and love. Really good acting from actors I've never seen before. Intense plot, a little slow in the beginning but good character development, once it gets going it has decent action and a truest deeper story that could teach us all where we're headed if we don't embrace one another as human beings.

We can co-exist if we let our guards down and listen to one another. We all have a story to tell. Im glad I took a couple hours to watch this one.

Only watched it because of the review bombers

[kvzkswuj · 7/10 · 10 October 2021]

I wasn't interested in watching it, but I wanted to know why this movie is apparently "leftist". Seemed quite balanced to me and I doubt that many actually watched it. It's actually a good movie, even if you're a right-winger. I'd give it a 6.5 or more. It's a shame everything gets politicized nowadays. The people who made this film deserve better, they did a great job.

Cool concept but poor execution

[listens_lamps · 1/10 · 19 October 2021]

I was really excited for this as I usually enjoy dystopian movies, shows, and books. But this movie had poor acting, stunted writing, and confusing/messy plotlines.

Lots of negative reviews!

[rbielman · 7 May 2022]

I come to this site to gain insight into movies I may be interested in. The reviews listed here for this confirm that I will probably watch this simply because it's caused quite a stir from the right-wing faction that want only to see media that casts them in a positive light. Kinda hard to do given their predilection toward violence at anything they don't like, so it's a pretty tall order to portray violent morons as heroes. Reality bites. Womp, comp.

Who Exactly Was This Movie Made For and Why?

[mjoepeech · 1/10 · 27 October 2021]

Absolutely ridiculous. I suspect it was made by the insurrectionists since they were the more sympathetic characters. As we say in my culture, dis some bull#@%!

A balanced review

[stevelivesey67 · 5/10 · 8 May 2022]

Generally, this is a well made, well directed, decent movie, if you can get past the original premise which is unhelpful, devisive propaganda and full of poorly written stereotypes on both sides of the argument.

The downsides are that it unclear what the relationships are of the people in the house to each other and this only became clear toward the end.

The story is poorly structured with the final pier scene that should have been inserted much earlier.

Much of the acting is passable except for Nadine Malouf who is excellent.

Some plotholes didn't help or weren't fully explained, Sarah's illness, Sarah's child, the bomb, David being gay? Gabe killed off screen? Arjay being alive when captured.

Sort of a Handmaid's Tale for the alphabet sex community.