Review: The East

And whilst it is a smart,insightful expression, when caught up in the charade of life it is sometimes hard to distinguish between the fine line of friend and foe.

Director and cowriter Zal Batmanglij brings a new interpretation of radical groups, perfectly timed with current events transpiring around the world.

Ex-FBI agent Sarah Moss (Brit Marling) has been recently employed as an operative for private intelligence firm, Hiller Brood.

After being warned of an anarchist collective known as The East, Sarah goes undercover as a backpacker, jumping from one train to another, in an attempt to infiltrate the group and bring about justice.

Unfortunately, instead of keeping her cards close to her chest, she becomes emotionally involved with the charismatic and handsome ‘leader’, Benji (Alexander Skarsgard).

One of the most iconic scenes in the film is where Sarah is first introduced to the whole group. They are all wearing straight jackets and have a bowl of soup with a wooden spoon in front of each of them.

Benji offers her to start serving first making it immediately obvious this is a test. It is clear she can’t simply pick up the spoon and eat like a normal civilized person. Instead she chooses to eat like a dog with her face in the bowl. When she looks to the others, she sees that they take it in turn to feed each other - picking up the spoon with their mouth and offering the food to the person next to them. This demonstrates the control and selflessness the group has developed in their own community.

The most interesting part of the film is the idea of freeganism - a practice of reclaiming and eating food that has been discarded.

In fact, co-writers Batmanglij and Marling actually took part in the practice of freeganism and this film is a product of their experiences during those six months.

Of course it’s been spiced up with politics, espionage and elements of thrillers, but it holds the fundamental idea of anti-consumerism and communicates how easily your own underlying morals can be unraveled.

It can be as easy as releasing yourself into a new situation or surrounding yourself with a certain type of people.

Most of the movie is fantastic. It has some brilliant emotional highs that are thrown in with purposefully created uncomfortable scenes, and the ideas produced by Marling and Batmanglij are uniquely insightful.

However, the flaw of this film is one of the key parts of storytelling - the ending. It was weak, predictable and basically just thrown in there to tie up loose ends, so imagine your own ending after you’ve watched it.

Marling gave an interesting performance. Though my first words to describe her would be “extremely quiet”, I still believe she gave an honest interpretation of her character. Sarah is clearly lost and her two different lives are conflicting with her emotions.

When she is in her backpacker outfit, she is cynical and untrusting, completely contrasting with her fierce and collected office appearance. Skarsgard, who is most known for his lead role as Eric in True Blood, plays the same brand of character he has become famous for.

Charismatic and dangerous, but a sucker when it comes to a pretty blonde. Though his performance was commendable and his emotional responses were excellent - he still felt like a mystery character trapped in a cause he could easily sacrifice.

Not holding the ending against it, the movie is entertaining and fresh. It manages to communicate a different collectives idea of love while at the same time acting as an exciting revenge thriller.

Many ideas are shaped into one film here, and though it’s smart and sophisticated, it won’t send many people to the garbage bin looking to convert to freeganism.

As usual, it will make the audience question whether we should trust what the multi-million dollar corporations tell us, but isn’t that just a consistent ‘back-of-the-mind’ thought for all of us nowadays?

@devlinalison