It hasn’t been a great year for original movies at the box office. As of this writing, the top 10 grossing movies for 2024 are ALL sequels, with the Blake Lively romantic drama It Ends With Us peering in from the #11 spot. One of the more promising original movies earlier this year appeared to be Alex Garland’s Civil War, a not-too-distant future sci-fi drama that seemed to capture the current political and cultural angst of America, especially in an election year.
Unfortunately, the film mostly failed to register given that it left the reasons for the on-screen war deliberately vague and focusing on arguably the most boring characters possible: dispassionate and jaded photojournalists who observe and report the mayhem while occasionally musing how much war sucks. I could’ve gotten that message for free in less than five minutes on the evening news.
Mackenzie Donaldson’s sophomore feature All the Lost Ones at the very least sets up a clear conflict and is populated by characters who have actual skin in the game. In a near-future established using present-day stock footage, government actions to mitigate climate change have sparked a revolt by a right-wing militia group, the United Conservancy. Summoning the immense power of rifles and hummers, they’ve somehow managed to occupy a sizable portion of the eastern US and Canada. With the Pentagon apparently on vacation, the UC wreaks havoc on the rural lands with only the eco-conscious “E.E” to resist them with terrified civilians caught in the middle.
Hunkering down, but partying hard is Nia (Jasmine Mathews) who along with her sister Penny (Vinessa Antoine), have helped to form a makeshift family under the roof of Mikael (Steven Ogg) sheltering in his lake house and hoping that the EE will find them before the UC does. But when a supply run to town goes awry, the group finds themselves with blood on their hands and targets on their backs as a UC platoon led by the viscous Conrad (Devon Sawa) makes it their mission to hunt the group down, forcing them to flee to the nearest EE encampment where sanctuary hopefully awaits.
Even if you somehow manage to suspend the massive amount of disbelief it requires to buy a bunch of rednecks causing this much havoc, what remains is a curiously empty drama enacted by paper-thin characters who are certainly capable of emoting, but not making us care.
Mathews does her best with Nia, but with lines like “I’m Black. I never had a choice” marking the depth of her character, she’s not left with much to work with other than emoting to the max and hoping it will squeeze a tear out somewhere.
In fact, most of the characters are operating on less depth than the average puddle. There’s no sign of the shades of grey that make for truly engaging drama. Only the skin-deep black and white stereotypes perpetuated by social and mainstream media outlets. It’s further puzzling how so much American militia culture has migrated so far north to Ontario. I normally bemoan Canadian films being set anywhere but Canada, but the setting almost works against the verisimilitude of this particular story.
Despite its flaws in execution, I’ll still give points to All the Lost Ones for at least attempting to tell an engaging civil war tale. The actors and mise-en-scéne shine even when the script lets them down. In the end though, it won’t change any minds or challenge preconceptions so what are we even doing here? Audiences can debate that amongst themselves, but I’ll take my satisfaction in getting paid to review this movie instead of paying to watch.
5/10
All the Lost Ones screens in theatres across Canada starting Nov 8