The future that awaits us is bleak, at least according to Kathryn Bigelow. The director, who has proven herself a master at combining intensity and authenticity, shifts away from the history-based dramas of her last three films and brings her mix of journalism, procedural realism, and immersive style to a speculative fictional story. Here we follow how U.S. government agencies, military command, and the president react once they realize a single missile is targeting Chicago. The entire film spans about twenty minutes of elapsed time, replayed three times, each from a different point of view.
All the traits that have defined Bigelow’s recent work are here. She once again shows her ability to make procedures and bureaucracy gripping, quickly establishing both the rules and the stakes. The first two passes through the events are extremely engaging. Using her visceral filmmaking style with handheld camerawork, naturalistic lighting, and claustrophobic spaces, she creates a “problem-solving drama,” cutting between the White House, missile bases, and command centers as characters try to keep their cool and decide the course of action. Her techniques put us inside the crisis rather than observing it from a safe distance.
In these first two sections, Bigelow does three things remarkably well. First, she builds a growing suspense and a palpable sense of unavoidable doom, showing unshakable characters gradually letting despair break through. Second, she shapes the story as a puzzle, where repetition adds context to gestures or lines. A moment played for humor in the first pass becomes urgent when revisited, or a seemingly cruel remark is reframed with deeper meaning. Third, she sprinkles in small touches of humor and heart to relieve the relentless procedures, such as a character sprinting during a virtual meeting or another placing a toy on her desk.
As expected from Bigelow, the film excels technically, at times representing some of her very best craft. Barry Ackroyd’s camerawork intensifies the action and brings a strong sense of immediacy. The interplay of sound, silence, and score builds dread, though the music at times recalls Conclave in distracting ways. Production design authentically recreates control rooms, heightening the oppressive and claustrophobic tension. But it is the editing that stands out as the film’s greatest achievement, orienting us even as scenes overlap and echo, and maintaining tension across a fractured timeline.
What undoes some of this brilliance is the third and last section, when it shifts to the president’s point of view. After the urgency and emotional pull of the first two perspectives, the film frames its moral question around the fact that one person holds such power, through an arc that builds on whether he will retaliate. Idris Elba gives a commanding performance, but the material he is given feels too vague and not very compelling. Long exchanges of dialogue reduce the urgency, and the whole section could be summarized by his comment about a podcast. Much like Alex Garland’s Civil War, Bigelow insists that the specifics do not matter, leaving who launched the missile or what exactly will happen next deliberately unclear. The aim is to make the threat universal, but that choice, like that film, comes across as oversimplified and narratively deflating.
Personally, I would have been more drawn to the impact on ordinary lives: the daughter played by Kaitlyn Dever, or Rebecca Ferguson’s character’s husband, or even the point of view of another country. By focusing on the president instead, the film closes on its least interesting angle, undercutting the intensity that preceded it. Despite this underwhelming finish, the first two acts remain masterful. With Bigelow’s commanding direction, a strong ensemble cast, and superb technical craft keeping audiences on the edge of their seats, A House of Dynamite is still worth seeing, even if its final note feels smaller and more generalized than the explosive potential it first promised.
This is part of Reviews On Reels TIFF 2025 Coverage. Due to the hectic rhythm of a film festival, it may be tweaked in the future. Still courtesy of TIFF.
Still courtesy of Netflix
- 1Sentimental Value
- 2Hamnet
- 3One Battle After Another
- 4Ne Zha 2
- 5Blue Moon
- 50A House of Dynamite#50 of 256
- Where to watch
Netflix- Where to watch
- Netflix
Play trailer
- Original title
- A House of Dynamite
- Director
- Kathryn Bigelow
- Cast
- Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Gabriel Basso, Jared Harris, Tracy Letts, Anthony Ramos, Moses Ingram, Jonah Hauer-King
- Rated
- R
- Screenwriter
- Noah Oppenheim
- Composer
- Volker Bertelmann
- Cinematography
- Barry Ackroyd, Eric Moynier, John Garrett
- Editor
- Kirk Baxter
- Country
- Language
- English
- Box office
- 181125
- Distributor (CA)
- Netflix