As movie settings go, the backdrop of Atropia is one of the more arresting you'll find. Actress Hailey Benton Gates' feature debut as writer/director is set in Fort Irwin, a sprawling US military training compound in the California desert where young men and women are acclimatised to whichever corner of the world they're set to be deployed. Within Fort Irwin is a 600,000 acre area known as "The Box," which is used to recreate foreign lands, filled with actors performing as natives and insurgents.
Gates' film is set in 2006, at the height of the American military occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, and so The Box has been converted into a fake Middle Eastern nation called "Atropia." The actors vary from genuine Arabs to Mexicans considered brown enough to pass as Atropians. Most of the performers are there simply to make a few quid, but Fayruz (Alia Shawkat) takes it all very, very seriously, plunging herself into her role with a method actor's commitment.
The setting of Atropia is so fascinating that the movie keeps you gripped for its opening act, but it soon becomes apparent that Gates has no clear idea of what she wants to do or say with this intriguing concept. The comedy is too obvious and its 2006 setting means the satire is all too familiar at this point. Much of the humour plays like a poor man's MASH by way of Ricky Gervais' Extras, a combination of jokes about trying to relieve your bowels in a portacabin and the travails of actors on the lowest rung of the industry ladder.
There is an amusing brief cameo by Channing Tatum as a self-deprecating version of himself visiting Atropia to prepare for an upcoming role.
Such gags wear thin quickly and so Gates introduces her central plot, which sees Fayruz enter a sexual, possibly romantic relationship with a soldier (Callum Turner) playing the role of an Atropian insurgent named Abu Dice. The two keep sneaking off for quickies whenever the opportunity arises, but we never believe that there's anything substantial between the pair. Shawkat and Turner struggle to generate any chemistry, making it difficult to invest in this coupling.
Atropia's satirical critique of the military-industrial complex needs to be far sharper. Some scenes have the kernel of ideas that make you wonder what a European absurdist like Lanthimos or Ostlund might make of this scenario. The question we find ourselves asking throughout Atropia is why Arab-Americans would take part in an exercise designed to make it easier for American troops to occupy their ancestral nations. One character suggest that America is going to invade their homeland so they might as well do what they can to ensure it happens in a "gentler" manner. In failing to explore this idea in any depth, Atropia's comedy ultimately comes off as thin and tasteless.
Directed by: Hailey Benton Gates
Starring: Alia Shawkat, Callum Turner, Chloe Sevigny, Zahra Alzubaidi, Tony Shawkat, Jane Levy, Tim Heidecker, Lola Kirke
