The East (2013)

Directed by: Zal Batmanglij
Written by: Zal Batmanglij, Brit Marling
Starring: Brit Marling, Alexander Skarsgard, Ellen Page
Rated: R

From Romulus and Remus to Mowgli to Native American folklore, throughout history and around the globe there are stories of feral children raised by wolves. It is in human nature to examine oneself as a beast, to draw association with animals, anthropomorphize them, and study the adaptive behavior of man in a naked form. Government is an artificial construct derived from a pack mentality in which we as humans have an alpha and a series of omegas, but suppose we did not. A Hobbesian state of nature is a cruel place, but for a rare few the structure is far crueler.

Sarah (Brit Marling) is a new operative for a highly secretive intelligence organization that specializes in the protection of large enterprises. Her husband tells her he knew more about her when she worked for the FBI. After nine months of dedicated research she is chosen to infiltrate an anarchic eco-terrorist cell known as the East which has been splashed across the media for their covert and highly dangerous attacks against the major members of certain corporations. Masking herself as an ultra-left wing vagabond (I guess they prefer to be called "travelers") she earns the trust of a member after evading the police.

Brought into their headquarters, a dilapidated, fire scorched house in the middle of the woods, Sarah must then assimilate herself into their small but fiercely dedicated group, and work towards undermining their future attacks. These are the types of people who live off of discarded food found in dumpsters, who bathe each other in rivers and refer to animals as if they were reasoning beings. A disturbing opening sequence shows the hooded group break into the home of a CEO of an oil refining company. Shot using a handycam, we see them slink into the lux abode of the ultra-rich and then dump gallons of oil into the air ducts of the house, the same oil which spilled into the ocean killing an ecosystem.

This is an electrically charged, morally ambiguous thriller about the hypocritical nature of extremism and the way that charisma and cultish community can sway the beliefs of the undecided. It is obvious going in that Sarah's sympathies will be tested; in the first jam we see the disastrous results of pharmaceutical company's new drug. In the second, the effects of contaminated water. And the third, well...more on that later. The group is headed by Benji (Alexander Skarsgard), our alpha male, and under his quiet power Sarah is slowly turned to the cause.

She is the feral child, and the East is her pack. The fluidity of beliefs raises all sorts of ethical questions, and although the film at first seems to hold left-leaning sympathies it's results are not so cut and dry. They praise equality and freedom from oppression of the establishment for that only leads to the harming of the masses by the privileged few, but there is a natural order to the group headed by Benji, Doc, and Izzy (Ellen Page). They cherish life and love, but warp Biblical passages to justify what they believe to be their magnanimous justice.

The film is sleek and stylish and full of great performances. Fortunately, for all the nail-biting tension of the jams, the ethics lessons and political remarks, the plot never loses the human quality behind it all. There are deeply spiritual moments of beauty and love shared within the East, and the strong acting from all involved keep it grounded and clear of being labeled corny.

Spoiler Alert

There are so many good things going on throughout the duration of the movie that it is almost a shame to talk about the major hole in the plot which irked me beyond measure.

We know from the onset that there will be three jams against certain companies: the poisoning of the CEOs at the party and pushing Izzy's father into the polluted lake are established. Then Sarah goes back to her intel company, and upon returning learns that the last attack will be against her own firm. It turns out Benji knew all along that Sarah was a mole and was keeping her around and earning her trust in tandem with her doing the same.

But this implies that the attack on Sarah's company was premeditated from the start, contradictory to what learn about the East initially: that everyone knows their part and most of them understand the whole of the jam before they commit it. If only Benji and one other person knew about Sarah, then is this jam new? Was it formulated after Izzy's death? If so, why wasn't that explained?

The third act falls to pieces, feeling muddled and rushed, and I didn't buy the message of the end credits at all. The lack of believability in its final moments ruined the even-handedness of the first two-thirds of the film. I knew there was something amiss while watching it, but it was not until further thought after I left the theater that I pinpointed what rubbed me the wrong way.

A bit more care towards the end was needed, but it doesn't completely diminish the solid work of most of this very cool picture.

3/4