Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Anniversary’ on Hulu, a wannabe-provocative political thriller about the slow creep of fascism

Anniversary (now on Hulu) takes place in absolute Hell: a Thanksgiving dinner table populated by conservatives and progressives. But this being The Movies, it’s not just any conservative, it’s the leader of a new totalitarian movement, and not just any progressive, but a high-profile university professor who participates in both-sides shouting matches on TV news programs. Such is the film’s aurora-borealis-localized-entirely-in-your-kitchen scenario, designed to provoke and scare us – and it might, if it didn’t seem so calculated to be a Modern Parable About Our Times, that is.   

ANNIVERSARY: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

The Gist: Anniversary drops in on the Taylor family every so often, to show how shitty everything gets for them. It doesn’t start out shitty, though. It’s Ellen (Diane Lane) and Paul Taylor’s (Kyle Chandler) 25th wedding anniversary and they’re hosting a big backyard luncheon in the big backyard of their big lakeside house. All their kids are home for the shindig: Birdie (Mckenna Grace) is their youngest, a high school science whiz lugging a microscope in her backpack. Cynthia (Zoey Deutch) and her husband Rob (Daryl McCormack), both environmental lawyers. Anna (Madeline Brewer) is a famous stand-up comedian. And Josh (Dylan O’Brien), a struggling writer, is introducing everyone to his new girlfriend, Liz (Phoebe Dynevor). Ellen is a prof at Georgetown and Paul owns a high-end restaurant in D.C. Waitstaff walk around with flutes of champagne on trays in upper-middle-class America, where everyone is happy happy happy. And passive-aggressive. That goes without saying. But happy!

These aren’t Red Staters, though. “The kids found our weed stash,” Paul cracks as he and Ellen settle in for bed and the adult offspring puff one around a bonfire. Anna, the bold one, calls out Liz as uptight, and the intention is to needle her brother more than to provoke the newcomer. But Anna’s right on the money. Ellen knew she recognized Liz from somewhere – a decade prior, she was a student whose thesis espoused an “anti-democratic radical ideology.” Ellen flagged it as “dangerous” and moved on with her life and now here’s Liz, acknowledging the past conflict with Ellen’s son at her hip. Is this revenge or coincidence? Not sure! There’s some tension between Josh and his mother, too – he thinks his mom sucks because she says his writing is good when he thinks it isn’t. This is what moms do. They love their children unconditionally and puff them up even if they don’t deserve it and they do it everywhere in every corner of the world regardless of ideology. But parent-child relationships are complicated and perhaps part of his rebellion is to pair up with an extreme right-winger who gives his mother a copy of her manifesto, The Change, which she dedicates to “all the academic stranglers.” Choke on that, Mom!

TWO YEARS LATER. The Change has become a cultural phenomenon, backed by a corporate think tank dubbed The Cumberland Company that seems totally tuned into the vague ideology Liz has concocted. Something something one-party system something something, represented by the new American flag with the star field plopped smack in the middle of the stripes, which now hangs outside the homes of many of the Taylors’ neighbors. And not only are Liz and Josh backed by lots of money now, they’re pregnant with twins. It’s Thanksgiving and the no-politics-at-the-table rule quickly gets flushed down the can. So it goes. ONE YEAR AFTER THAT, Ellen is out of work and Paul’s restaurant is failing and the country is becoming more authoritarian, including Josh, who’s now a loathsome cretin who openly wields his newfound power to intimidate and bully his family. We’ll drop in on Ellen and Paul a year after that and then a year after that, to illustrate what happens to people whose politics don’t align with the jackboots in power.  

What Movies Will It Remind You Of? Michel Franco’s Mexican film New Order – about a political revolt set during a big-money wedding – is a more effective and memorable (and violent) depiction of societal upheaval. Brewer and Grace also turn up in the similarly themed series The Handmaid’s Tale. 

Performance Worth Watching: O’Brien distinguished himself recently with a terrific turn in Twinless, and here, he gives the film’s most memorable performance by being an utterly terrifying creep who’s lost his humanity. 

Sex And Skin: None.

Our Take: Anniversary seems to have been conceptualized as a cautionary tale, an illustration of what happens when, I dunno, a professor antagonizes a fascist student? What’s the lesson to be learned here? Be nice to extremists, lest they become even more extreme? The film – directed by Jan Komasa, who conceived the story with screenwriter Lori Rosene-Gambino – lacks specificity and focus, which could be effective in creating a parable/thought experiment about the silent-but-deadly gas-leak poison of authoritarianism. But even though Anniversary can be bracingly effective, miserably uncomfortable even, in the moment, as it repeatedly triggers our injustice reflex, simple reflection reveals that it’s all gratingly obvious, and forgoes character development for flimsy archetypes. This all might be scarier if the people felt like, you know, real people.

Take Ellen. Lane is a fine actor, as ever, but we have no sense of her interior life. Is she doubting herself? Does she wish she engaged with Liz in a different manner all those years ago? Has she attempted to reconnect with her son in a meaningful way? We’re supposed to look at her and Paul’s affluence with a raised eyebrow – you can’t insulate yourself from fascism with money, the movie screams. Is her type – and she is more a type than a human being – too dismissive and arrogant to recognize the symptoms of trouble? Her children are all archetypes, too: the provocateur, the vulnerable youngling, the cynic, the traitor. Meanwhile, Paul just wants to keep the peace.

The first half of the film is taut and shrewdly directed placesetting. But the second half loses its razorlike edge, replacing it with blunt-force hysteria. It distracts us from its logical unsoundness by giving multiple cast members opportunities to weep and scream with viscous mucous strings trailing from their teeth and nostrils, while a murderous sky pummels the world with rain torrents and flashes of electricity. LOOK MA, THE STORM IS HERE! The script doles out risible dialogue – Chandler, a highly credible presence in any project, is saddled with an over-the-top exhortation about a dog that inspires unintended comedy – as Komasa stages further maddeningly manipulative drama and bits of shocking violence. And his final shot really wants to leave us with a moment of winking, discomfiting uncertainty (evil has such a polite smile) but it’s far more effective at confounding us. 

Our Call: We get it. Authoritarianism is bad. Wake up, and all that. We don’t need Anniversary and its phony manipulations to scare us. SKIP IT.

John Serba is a freelance film critic from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Werner Herzog hugged him once.