Original title: ‘A House of Dynamite’ Review: Idris Elba and Rebecca Ferguson in Kathryn Bigelow’s Precision-Tooled, Viscerally Unsettling Nail-Biter
Eight years since her last feature, Kathryn Bigelow returns with an unrelenting chokehold thriller so controlled, kinetic and unsettlingly immersive that you stagger out at the end of it wondering if the world will still be intact. Though it’s less a war film than a drama about the aggressive threat of war, A House of Dynamite is very much of a piece with the director’s later-career gut punches, The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty. It’s a testament to the justifiably high regard in which Bigelow is held that she has drawn such a deep bench of first-rate actors, several of them onscreen for just a brief scene or two yet all making vivid impressions. The large ensemble cast has no weak link. A House of Dynamite The Bottom Line Leaves you breathless. Venue: Venice Film Festival (Competition) Release date: Friday, Oct. 24 Cast: Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Gabriel Basso, Jared Harris, Tracy Letts, Anthony Ramos, Moses Ingram, Jonah Hauer-King, Greta Lee, Jason Clarke Director: Kathryn Bi