Susan Granger’s review of “The East” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Former FBI agent, Sarah (Brit Marling) is now a hotshot operative for Hiller/Brood, a secretive security firm that specializes in espionage for pharmaceutical and corporate clients. When her no-nonsense boss (Patricia Clarkson), dispatches her to infiltrate a radical environmental group that
calls itself The East, she tells her live-in boyfriend Tim (Jason Ritter) she’s traveling in Dubai.
But instead of boarding an international flight, steely Sarah adroitly exits the D.C. airport, dyes her hair, changes into grubby clothes, dons a backpack and hops a freight train, going off the grid to find this anarchist collective. Sure enough, one of her traveling companions turns out to be a member of the creepy, cult-like cell she’s seeking. Despite some initial mistrust, she’s taken to their headquarters, a burnt-out house in the woods and gets on with their scruffy, strangely taciturn leader, Benji (Alexander Skarsgard from TV’s “True Blood”), and his cohorts, including Doc (Toby Kebbell) and Izzy (Ellen Page). Before long, she’s embedded herself in their vengeful, punitive “jams” or calculated retaliations against smarmy corporate executives.
“Spy on us, we’ll spy on you,” they vow. “Poison us, we’ll poison you.”
Written by Brit Marling and director Zal Batmanglij, the story’s filled with curious communal rituals – like having the group’s members wear straitjackets to dinner, symbolically forcing them to feed each other off big wooden spoons that they grip between their teeth, followed by an awkwardly childish spin-the-bottle game and submissive baptism. Soon, the Stockholm syndrome sets in, as now-radicalized Sarah feels a growing empathy for their anti-Establishment missions and becomes more and more conflicted about being an informant. How will she cope with this moral dilemma?
Brainy actress/writer Brit Marling epitomizes the initiative of the New Hollywood, working in collaboration with Zal Batmanglij to create relevant projects for themselves, including “Another Earth” and “The Sound of My Voice.”
On the Granger Movie Gauge of to 10, “The East” is a shrewd, suspenseful 7, a low-tech, cerebral thriller that raises your social consciousness while oozing a pervasive sense of conspiracy and danger.
