Always Good Movies

Direction: Justin Kurzel
Country: USA

In Justin Kurzel’s crime thriller The Order, Robert Matthews (Nicholas Hoult), a staunch neo-nazi affiliated with the Aryan Nations puts words into action, following the method described in the notorious book The Turner Diaries—authored by National Alliance founder William Luther Pierce—turning hateful rhetoric into violent action, and following its blueprint for armed revolution and assassination tactics. Declaring war on the federal government and engaging in domestic terrorism, Matthews faces off against Terry Husk (Jude Law in a muscular performance), a hardened, short-tempered FBI agent determined to dismantle the rise of white supremacy.

Set in the early 1980s, the fact-based script by Zachary Baylin (King Richard, 2021; Creed III, 2023) combines historical authenticity with narrative urgency. Initially unfolding as a conventional thriller, the film gradually deepens into a darker exploration of extremism in a satisfying combination of genre thrills and real-life implications. It deftly captures the disturbing proximity between extremist ideologies and their violent manifestations, challenging viewers to confront these realities.

Visually unremarkable and interspersed with bursts of repetitive action, The Order distinguishes itself through its compelling emphasis on character. Hoult and Law deliver intense performances that anchor the narrative, while Kurzel, known for Snowtown (2011) and Nitram (2021), demonstrates a measured approach to the sensitive subject matter. He skillfully balances the film's elements, allowing the actors to discover moments of nuance, rhythm, and vulnerability within the story.

Equal parts unsettling and candid, The Order doesn’t quite transcend genre expectations, yet some may find curiosity in the way Kurzel explores the themes.

Direction: Justin Kurzel
Country: Australia

Given a clinical treatment by the Australian director Justin Kurzel (The Snowtown Murders, 2011; Macbeth, 2015), Nitram is a slow, suffocating psychological drama based on the 1996 mass shooting that occurred in Port Arthur, Tasmania, where 35 people were shot by a mentally unstable young man.

Caleb Landry Jones (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, 2017; Get Out, 2017) stars as the title character (the nickname Nitram is Martin spelled backwards), a troubled, formerly bullied boy who, even on medication, sometimes doesn’t know what to do with the loneliness and infinite sadness he experiences in a daily basis. All the same, there’s something inherently evil in him, and his parents know it. Whereas his patient father (Anthony LaPaglia) always tries to ease things up, the mother (Judy Davis) doesn’t seem to know how to react properly to his defiance, usually showing coldness and strictness or pushing him to the edge. We’re talking about a person with fixed ideas - fireworks, guns, surf - who’s not capable to measure the danger in particular situations.

Unexpectedly, his pain is substantially eased and his mind pacified when he meets Helen (Essie Davis), a wealthy and much older woman who, like him, lives a solitary life. When everything seemed to go so well, an accident reverts every improvement he had made.

You know what's going to happen at the end, but Kurzel, who worked from a screenplay by Shaun Grant, gives the audience precious details that help shaping the protagonist with faultless depressive realism. This unsettling account works like the implacable pull of a bad dream, and comes stripped of any possible sentimentality associated with the criminal act itself.

It will likely lodge in your head for a while, thanks to the rigor with which it was mounted, and the top-notch performances from Landry Jones and Judy Davis.