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| Sarah (Brit Marling) goes undercover to investigate the eco-terrorist organization, The East. |
Brit Marling is one of the most underrated talents working in Hollywood today and for the third straight year commencing with 2011's Another Earth and last year's underground thriller, Sound of My Voice, this magnetically talented producer, writer and actress shakes the indie scene to its core with The East.
Marling reteams up with director Zal Batmanglij (Sound of My Voice) for a second collaborative effort diving headfirst into a trifecta of eco-terrorist plots engineered by the titular group that's solely directed towards three corrupt corporations. The East live by the ancient Hammurabi moral code, "an eye for an eye" turning each of their "jams" by fighting fire with fire, regardless of who gets caught in the crossfire.
The East wastes little time embodying the traits of a more ambitious thriller than the duo's previous film, provided with more legroom to break out an entire armory of risky measures onto the scene that continuously challenge the moral ambiguity on all sides of the equation. What develops over the course of The East's two hour run time is stripped layer by layer by the several stages of its calculated revolutionary agenda until nothing remains except for the real picture.
Marling and Batmanglij don't sugarcoat the sins of the three targeted corporations, displaying graphic images of wildlife drenched in oil and farm folk slowly dying from poisoned water. Though riding the sensational side of storytelling, the unsettling series of monochromatic graphics evoke a fire for those frustrated and disgusted.
An almost unrecognizable Marling cuts her way through the tense circumstances as an operative for a private D.C. intelligence firm going undercover to bring down The East from within. Initially, Marling and Batmanglij paint the tight-knit group as a pack of radicals off the grid and to Marling's Sarah, it's nothing more than another assignment in the field. But over the course of The East, the script and the haunting supporting performances from Alexander Skarsgard and Ellen Page shift the sympathetic momentum away from the targeted corporations and targeted towards the revolution moment.
Until Sarah is deep undercover with The East, Marling and Batmanglij leisurely stride through the first act, laying down the groundwork for a more compelling thrill ride. Once the "jams" take off, precisely targeting corporation after corporation, every second that passes is crammed with raw intensity. Sarah is forced to take part in the covert corporate killings to not blow her own cover, constructing a moral conflict between her loyalty to the firm and her "terrorist brethren."
Like Another Earth and Sound of My Voice, Marling exercises her wide range of natural charisma to carry the emotional resonance of The East beyond the typical undercover scenario. Granted, the plot points don't fall under the category of narrative freshness, but her powerhouse performance counterbalances any derivative storytelling.
Marling's co-star, Alexander Skarsgard gets his time to shine as well, debuting onscreen during a cult-like dinner with a near messiah-like presence rocking the grungy hobo look. He and Marling click instantaneously and the chemistry continues throughout The East as he transforms her duplicitous character into a crucial component of the no-nonsense extremist group.
Fueled by its excess of moral ambiguities, the actions of The East will create dissention amongst audiences. Whether you agree whether or not their moral code is justified by the end results of the film is a personal stance, but after two hours of careful plotting and executing, the final resolution ends up being more weightier and clear-cut than Marling's previous two films. What comes next from these two creative collaborators has an even more ambitious bar to raise than The East overcame in the past year.
GRADE: A (10/10)
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