Operation Avalanche expends a lot of effort, much of it rather inventively, to tell a pretty rote story. Its yet another found footage movie, but this one has a pretty good twist, its not a horror film, its an alternative history flick. Specifically set in the late 60's, as a couple of sorta doofy junior CIA agents are embedded in NASA, and set about finding a suspected Russian mole in the space program. Found footage films eschew filmmaking technique, but this one is rich in it, as its chief pleasures are how it painstakingly recreates 1960's America through the lens of an 8mm camera and 'documentary' crew. It even uses some low-budget but effective Forrest Gump-style effects to place its characters in history, those parts are pretty cool. Everyone looks period appropriate dorky, and anybody who's never seen any of the great and numerous wave of paranoid thrillers from the 70's will probably jive on this a lot. But the story beats really don't keep pace with its technical achievements. I feel bad ragging on this movie for its extremely predictable plot, but a promising film has to be held to a higher standard, and the characters, such as they are, don't give a whole lot else to hang on to. Its a fine achievement in direction, and ultimately an interesting sorta meta-movie in of itself, but its not successful at everything it does. Still worth a look though. I do enjoy an ambitious whiff.
Nate Parker, the director, has a great asset that is very well utilized in Nate Parker, the actor. He's so damn good in
The Birth of a Nation that I could see myself forgiving some of the jankier elements of this film, and there really are a lot of them. I hate to be the guy who references somebody else's review, but this film has been called 'Black Braveheart' by better writers than me, and that's about right. Like Braveheart, its a rousing and tru-ish story involving a lot of violence. Here, the said violence isn't handled quite as lovingly as Gibson puts the details on his gore and mayhem, but the everything else is better. Parker really captures the plantation lifestyle and culture really well, which gives weight to the rest of the film, even when some pedestrian direction and spotty performances let down the material (there are some
terrible southern accents in this). This is Parker's first film as a director, and its quite clear that the guy has a lot of potential, he writes some dang good dialog, and his handling of the theological aspects of the story are dang brilliant. The issues surrounding him, and by extension, this film, make this all a thornier proposition than it used to be. But no matter the source, the world of cinema has had a lot of lionizing movies about blood-drenched historical figures, so here's another one. Its a little more artful, a little more serious, but not entirely punishing despite its subject matter. I guess that counts as a win, but if this won a bunch of Oscars I'd be kinda pissed about it the same way I was when Braveheart won big (Heat wasn't even nominated, man!), except for Best Actor, I'd be fine with that outcome.
