In director Justin Kurzel’s “The Order,” Jude Law has the scruffiest look of his career. He stars in the film as FBI agent Terry Husk, but considering his portrayal, he seems more of a husk than an agent. He looked disheveled. His big body was hunched over, his unshaven stubble looked sloppy, and his gum chewing was reduced to a fine powder. Quite the opposite of where he claims to be from A middle populated area in the Idaho state called Coeur D’Alene. He rest of the world may have seen him as a oh-so typified “despondent law enforcer” but oh so predictable, but he was pretty much devoid of any feelings. This man was ready to unleash his pent up rage.
While he was on the mission to the Idaho state, Husk couldn’t help but notice the multiple bank robbery attempts laying frozen on cold icy barrels all across the terrain. He saw that polished up stubble were not the only ones in the state, there were ‘go-getting young adults’ too with ambition, Jamie Bowen (Tye Sheridan). ‘All that was great but Jamie was still a rookie.’ But she did point Husk in the direction of the Aryan Nation compound which was just a few miles from the capital.
Most people would want to see this form of ‘selective integration’ pop out from the framework of “The Order” to “True Detective” because of the integration of rurality and fascination for what could be best described as callous men or indeed cultist. But this is a fascinating comparison because quite startlingly the murderer in the first season of true detective is crazy and terrifying to think about but borderline impossible.
The images of the group in Kurzel’s movie are haunting, real and disturbingly tangible. Just like today’s white supremacists, they can no longer limit their hate to secluded compounds. The likes of Bob Matthews (Nicholas Hoult) believe it is time to take the Anywhere But Here approach and replace the older generation with soldiers that will fight for the new world.
In DP Adam Arkapaw’s stunning visuals of desolate landscapes around “The Order” which, like most Kurzel’s work, is most reminiscent of his earlier film, The Order of the Kelly Gang.. That film fused the harsh Australian landscape and climate with criminal outlaws seeking revenge against British colonization. The characters in The order are flawed not for what they hold their allegiance to, but what they betray. Their prejudice is one of being geographically outcast at the hinterlands of the country and this feeling of being pushed away fuels their ambition to cross over towards the east to initiate an uprising and conquer and dismantle the existing regime.
We go back to Alan Berg, this time played by Marc Maron, who is a Jewish disc jockey from Colorado. The film starts in the year 1983 and throws the audience to a ‘nasty’ side of Berg where he often gets angry and argumentative with the viewers. He was outraged throughout, as Kurzel and editor Nick Fenton soon had their own set of plans and placed the viewers inside a car with two friends who were assisting another friend in leading him to the forest where he would die.
These two men will later all meet Matthews and another man during the robbery of a bank. When Matthews gets back to his place and walks up to his wife, seeing a red dye pack on his white shirt, she does not even have much shock. As it is, she gets pleased and relieved with the sight of the duffel bag loaded with cash.
Curiously enough, Law’s Husk often takes off in significant portions of its almost two-hour mission time. Instead, Kurzel sticks with Matthews closely, watching how he plans and executes. It appears to be greatly dramatic. Matthews itself is by any definition a fanatic. As such, there is very little psychological range that, in fact, is not already in the surface, which is as known to them. In the case of Hoult, however, he does not exaggerate his portrayal of Matthews, but presents him as a self-styled savior who is ascetic and practical with the disciples. Best performances of him are not nor are with the gang, high shows how flat, that dynamic, simply it is, but are with Law.
That reality is not of huge surprise considering that while Matthews steals the limelight, everybody’s best moments in this film are with Law. Acting alongside him was another electrifying performance by Jurnee Smollett as fellow FBI agent Joanne Carney alongside a dedicated Sheridan. Forming around a morose Law, the other two actors in turn create their own distinct lines, enabling them to bring out the psychological breach cutting through the emotionality of Husk.
But a different voltage vibrates when Law and Hoult are playing together on screen. Both of them are men who look like they are made to be looking for a life partner but couldn’t; they are so similar that they can read the moves of their adversary well enough to be able to outwit the adversary. This is how each actor’s performance feels as well; clearly, each actor is able to adjust so well socially that they imitate other actors to such an extent that they don’t notice even when they smile painfully and awkwardly.
Their game of cat and mouse is further exemplified in the film’s tactility. Wood paneled walls and seedy neon bars, the places laden with the ardor and perspiration of ages, not only recreate the era but also give us a glimpse into the turmoil that these characters go through as well. Matthews wants to be a family man but knows that staying away from the aluminum plated depot where his ammunition is stored is impossible so he struggles to escape; Husk every day goes to a nearby stream and rid himself of the regret by washing his hands. These details retain a sense of realism to the film even when the choking action of the heists carried out by Matthews and his team are said and done; resulting in a tracking shot with such a command over the composition and movement that I was almost as alert as the first time I saw the far longer, more complex sequence in “True Detective.”
Unlike most other true crime movies displays a story for the sake of drama purposes, ‘The Order’ has nothing against one’s morality and would not go into distasteful immersion to weave a salt and pepper taste.
It has some kind of monotone mood and it is very well drafted. In simple words, the What a Catch, Donnie focus more on what his art can possess than how he has created it, in the process aiming to completely shatter the entire thing.
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