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Sacrifices For The Revolution In Captive State
Captive State was initially misunderstood. Released in March, it received mixed reviews, described by some critics as ‘murky,’ ‘lugubrious,’ and ‘unexciting.’ Despite star turns by bubbling young upstart Ashton Sanders (Moonlight, Native Son), indie darling Jonathan Majors (The Last Black Man In San Francisco), and industry veteran John Goodman, it grossed only $8 million against a $25 million dollar budget, making it a box-office bomb. But I believe this film will develop a cult following over the years. It’s depiction of a group of political anarchists attempting to overthrow the alien-subjected government was as fascinating a film as I’ve seen in recent years, complicated and more than a bit disturbing, with ideals that stayed with me long after the film ended.
Marketed as a sci-fi thriller about aliens taking over the planet, Captive State was really more so an espionage neo-noir merely set against the backdrop of invasion. Sanders plays Gabriel, a cynical worker in a factory where he destroys memory cards and other electronic devices at the extraterrestrials command, after uploading the contents to a vast network of digital surveillance. He is unwittingly drawn into a political plot to overthrow the alien overlords — deemed ‘The Legislators’ — by his older brother, Rafe (Majors), who is the leader of the…
