A House of Dynamite is the latest from director Kathryn Bigelow. It's a political thriller that dramatizes the launch of a nuclear weapon toward the United States. With less than 20 minutes until impact, dozens of people scramble to formulate a response -- from officers in the White House Situation Room, to military officers tasked to intercept the inbound missile, to intelligence officers all around the country, to the president himself and members of his cabinet. Though the movie cuts around nimbly to all these points of view, there is still far more than can unfold in "real time," and so three acts each replay events from different perspectives to ultimately reveal everyone and everything at play.
Kathryn Bigelow has a long and acclaimed career making suspenseful movies. Sometimes, these have been inspired by -- or have directly adapted -- real life events. But I like seeing her bring her clear action-thriller skills to bear on a work of fiction. She knows how to build tension, and does it again here. That skill perhaps overshadows her skill with actors; she has a massive ensemble cast here, and gets good work from all of them.
To name only a few, A House of Dynamite features solid performances from Jared Harris, Anthony Ramos, Gabriel Basso, Greta Lee, Jason Clarke, Kaitlyn Dever, Renée Elise Goldsberry, and Idris Elba -- among many, many more. And to me, rising above them all is Rebecca Ferguson. It's not exactly news that she's a reliably great thing about many entertaining movies and shows, but that doesn't mean I should let another good performance go unnoticed.
The movie is a bit of a fun bait-and-switch. It starts off appearing like a quintessential example of what I've heard described as "competence porn": stories that center around smart people demonstrating intelligence and excellence at their jobs under demanding circumstances. The movie becomes even more interesting as that all starts to unravel and elements of the characters' humanity peek through the cracks of their stony exteriors.
I'd heard about the unusual "three-act structure" of this movie -- not a beginning, middle, and end... but a "same story told from three perspectives" approach. I too would divide the movie into three parts, but my divisions would be a bit different:
My first part lines up exactly with the movie's "first act." It's an immediately engaging story with quickly ratcheting tension, and is undeniably the best section of the film. (I think it's no coincidence that this is the portion that features Rebecca Ferguson.)
My second part would be almost "the rest of the movie." Once you've lived through the escalating drama once, backtracking to pick up other perspectives basically can't live up. The story is by no means dull, but it can't soar to the heights of learning how events will unfold as you did the first time through the story. The tension is still palpable... it's just not as taut as in the opening act.
My third part is... well... the final minute. I found the end of the film to be profoundly unsatisfying. I deliberately call it the "end of the film" rather than "the ending," because it really doesn't feel like a conclusion in any way. After 90+ minutes of expertly crafted tension, the end credits arrived not like a crescendo, but like an abdication by writer Noah Oppenheim. In gathering up my thoughts for this review, I really had to remind myself just how much I had really enjoyed the rest of the movie -- and not allow a few final frames to drag down the experience overall.
And so, with that in mind, I will give A House of Dynamite an A-. I still hate the ending... but I think it's worth the journey all the same. I'm slotting the movie at #5 on my Best of 2025 movie list.
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