Anniversary

FULL SPOILER-FREE REVIEW @ https://movieswetextedabout.com/anniversary-movie-review-when-political-ideologies-tear-the-perfect-family-apart/

"Anniversary is an engaging, high-voltage thriller that explores the gradually shocking transformation of a happy family into a destructive and self-destructive force, all due to socio-political ideologies.

With a luxury cast delivering memorable performances, Jan Komasa gives us a narrative that subverts expectations with genuinely powerful twists and an atmosphere of growing discomfort that lingers long after the credits roll. It's a story meant to be debated, analyzed, and one that forces us to confront how fragile our collective is.

It's a call for reflection: in the end, what defines who we are isn't the flag we wave, but the line we draw between our convictions and respect for human dignity."

Rating: B+

It’s frightening how quickly, easily and seemingly innocuously circumstances in society can change (and in a wide range of areas, too). One day you’re leading a tranquil, happy life and the next you’re a pariah under the scrutiny of a totalitarian, cult-like sociopolitical movement (conditions to which many of us can probably relate these days). Such is the experience of Ellen and Paul Taylor (Diane Lane, Kyle Chandler), a college professor and restaurateur, respectively, who are celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary with family and friends. But this festive occasion is undercut by the appearance of an unexpected guest, Liz Nettles (Phoebe Dynevor), the new girlfriend of the couple’s son, Josh (Dylan O’Brien), an unsuccessful novelist. Her presence is a source of quiet but undeniable disruption, given that she was once one of Ellen’s students at Georgetown University. Liz was perceived by Ellen and her peers as a dangerously radical student who advocated for a strictly dogmatic one-party government, a so-called symbol of “a united population,” backed by the considerable resources of a corporate conglomerate imbued with sweeping powers. And now, as the author of a best-selling manifesto supporting her ultra-conservative ideology, she has become the poster child for a broad-based sociopolitical movement known as “The Change,” one not unlike that seen in director Frank Capra’s “Meet John Doe” (1941) but condescendingly fueled by control and manipulation rather than kindness and compassion. Over the course of the next five years, as the movement and the clout wielded by Liz and Josh grow, they begin exerting significant influence over Ellen, Paul and their three daughters (Madeline Brewer, Zoey Deutch, Mckenna Grace), efforts that tear the family apart. This horrific experience carries a huge cost, one that’s often maddening, heartbreaking and difficult to watch but one that, as a potent cautionary tale, also shouldn’t be ignored. Writer-director Jan Komasa’s gripp...

It’s not polarization... It’s Fascism

A disturbing and prescient political, pseudo-dystopian thriller that uses the disintegration of a wealthy family as a metaphor for the collapse of democracy in the United States.

Elisabeth is now part of this family, and she is also the mind behind the successful literary work "The Change"—a rising radical political movement promoting a one-party system under the promise of order and the omnipresent irony of "freedom" and "democracy."

Through a series of annual time jumps centered on the family, the film shows how Elisabeth’s extreme ideology infects the household, fracturing loyalties, while the entire country plunges into sectarian totalitarianism and the systematic targeting of dissenters.

Of course, there are no visible signs of macro-politics on the streets; instead, we see the poison of authoritarianism tainting the way people look at one another, amidst silences and abject gestures. For, ladies and gentlemen, modern fascism does not arrive by force, but rather disguised as a "social pact" and hollow, convenient promises.

And now, let someone try to tell me that none of this sounds familiar.