Assassination Nation

Assassination Nation​, a 2018 film directed by Sam Levinson, is a beautiful peice of art. Not only is it incredibly entertaining, labeled as a black comedy thriller, but it contains important messages that are consistently relevant. The plot of the movie is as follows: an anonymous hacker exposes the data of half of the town of Salem. Suddenly, half of the townspeople had all their information displayed for the public to see, including their emails, their text messages, which porn site they visited last, who they’re having an affair with, and any other intimate details they might want to keep private. With no more secrets, the town descends into chaos in a desperate attempt to bring justice to the hacker who ruined their lives. The movie follows four teenage girls who are caught up in the mayhem that follows the hacking, desperately trying to survive in a town where nobody is on their side.

I chose to present this film because there are two themes in the movie that I feel were very well presented. The first theme was that of mob mentality. The main character presents this quote: “Ten percent of the population is cruel. And, like, ten percent is merciful. And the other 80 percent can be swayed in either direction,” and then presented what it would look like if that 80 percent was swayed toward cruelty. Once the town of Salem began to crumble, people became violent, and others followed suit. Suddenly in an anarchy, the townspeople cling for something to believe in and someone to blame, and follow the accusations where they lead. Like a modern-day witch hunt, the people of Salem find whatever guilt they can out of the revealed data and turn against those people, hoping to find clarity, hoping to find a solution to the chaos. The people lost all morals when they lost their privacy and started lashing out at everyone around them, desperate to find someone to blame for their pain. While this is a relatively common troupe, this movie was the first to present it in a way that made sense to me. I understood their anger and their fear and their pain, leaving me to wonder if I am simply the 80 percent, so easily swayed towards good as I am towards the bad.

The second theme of the movie that I found particularly interesting was about nudity, and how it is viewed. Now, I didn’t think much about this before the movie, but nudity is not inherently sexual; in fact, it is a natural state of being for every other animal on the planet. Humans have made nudity taboo, especially in the western world, meaning most all nude bodies are sexualized whether they should be or not. For example, one of the first people hacked in the movie was the school principal. Though he did not have anything particularly damning in his data, he did happen to have an old picture of his daughter in the bathtub playing, naked. Though the picture was not taken to be sexual in any way, the principal is labeled a pedophile by the community and asked to step down from his position. The film emphasizes that the sexualization of nudity has even trickled down to children, where nothing should be considered sexual at all. For the main character in the movie, the pressure around nudity is exhausting. For an art project, she draws a nude woman posing for a photo, and when questioned on it, she said “This isn't about the sex or the porn or even being naked. This is about everything that goes into it. The pressure. The endless mind-fuck, the 10,000 naked selfies you took before this one, trying to get it just right. Trying to make sure the light hides your left nipple because it's slightly inverted or it's smaller. Or maybe your labia's too big. But if you pull your pelvic bone up and bend to the left slightly in a lowlight setting, then you'll be beautiful. Hashtag flawless, body confident. But it's all one big lie.” She can no longer be comfortable with her own naked body because she is consumed with how it could be sexualized by others. The movie is not necessarily advocating for nudity but it is advocating for the right to reclaim your own body, especially as a woman, from a society that constantly tells you how to feel about it. Truly, the movie contains many relevant messages, and it's just a good movie, one that is definitely worth a watch.