The Reel Review
The lives of a successful, politically progressive family in metro Washington D.C. are completely upended within just five years as America plunges full speed into authoritarianism. Diane Lane, Phoebe Dynevor (Bridgerton), Dylan O’Brien and Kyle Chandler star in this dystopian political thriller.
Although he was born well after the Nazi German then Soviet occupation of his native Poland, Oscar-nominated director/co-writer Jan Komasa (Corpus Christi) eerily has his finger on the pulse of America’s current decline. (Anniversary was filmed a year before the 2024 election.) When the new girlfriend of the family’s only son shows up at their 25th anniversary celebration, Ellen, a Georgetown University political science professor, recognizes her as a former student who was a frightening, right-wing extremist. When Ellen discovers that she is the author of a manifesto that is sparking a Project 2025-like political movement called The Change, Ellen is horrified.
With its fascist imagery (the proliferation of altered U.S. flags and yard signs heralding those who have accepted The Change), the grooming of weak-minded individuals and the Nazi Gestapo-like snatching of citizens deemed enemies of the state, Anniversary is a stomach-churning portrait of the devastating effects of radical ideology and its varied effects on people. The scene with the census takers is particularly chilling. At times the story’s melodrama is a bit on the nose, but by doing so Anniversary effectively drives home its point about just how quickly individual freedoms can be snatched away. Lane, in particular, gives an Oscar-worthy performance in this very important and timely film.
REEL FACTS
• There has been a long-running rumor that rocker Jon Bon Jovi’s iconic 1986 song “You Give Love a Bad Name” was about Diane Lane, whom he dated for about a year. Bon Jovi says it is not about a specific individual.
• Anniversary is the third collaboration between Dylan O’Brien and Zoey Deutch after the 2022 films The Outfit and Not Okay.
• Although set in Northern Virginia just outside of Washington D.C., Anniversary was filmed in Ireland.
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