Movie Info
Movie Info
- Director
- Joseph Schuman and Austin Stark
- Run Time
- 1 hour and 38 minutes
- Rating
- Not Rated
VP Content Ratings
- Violence
- 3/10
- Language
- 2/10
- Sex & Nudity
- 1/10
- Star Rating
Relevant Quotes
What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done;
there is nothing new under the sun.
Is there a thing of which it is said,
“See, this is new”?
It has already been
in the ages before us.
Again I saw all the oppressions that are practiced under the sun. Look, the tears of the oppressed—with no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power—with no one to comfort them. 2 And I commended the dead, who have already died, more than the living, who are still alive, 3 but better than both is the one who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun.
Written and directed by Joseph Schuman and Austin Stark, this tale of class warfare takes place in a time that was as deadly as our recent Covid Pandemic, the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918. Jay Horton (Billy Magnussen) and his family—wife Julie ( Sarah Gadon) and two young children, are sheltered from the plague by taking up residence in their lavish mansion on Egg Island, fairly close to New York City. Horton, a vegetarian, has inherited his fortune from his magnate father and now poses as a progressive writer, concerned for the welfare of the masses, frequenting attacking President Wilson’s inept handling of the crisis. He is a hypocrite in that he claims to be writing from the dangerous streets of the City, but instead, clad in a dressing gown and red, velvet slippers, sits at his typewriter in his book-lined library writing made-up stories, his every need provided by his servants. He calls them “staff,” but pays them as little as possible. He possesses a gorgeously decorated swimming pool which is off-limits to everyone but himself.
The film begins, not with the Hortons, but with Floyd Monk (Peter Sarsgaard). He is at a shuttered restaurant where a man’s head rests upon a table, a bullet puncture in his forehead. It is unclear whether Monk is responsible for the death or not. Shaving his beard so that he looks much like the dead man’s portrait in his passport, Monk leaves, intending to take the dead man’s place. The latter has been invited to become the cook for a wealthy family on an island reachable only by ferry.
Monk turns up on Egg Island claiming to be the chef the Hortons want. Senior servant Mrs. McMurray (Kristine Nielsen) is skeptical of him, but the Horton’s welcome him. Also serving the family is Black governess (Skye P. Marshall), hoping to attend med school; chauffer Kaan (Faran Tahir) who emigrated to America only to find it is not the promised “land of plenty” after all; and Irish housekeeper (Kristine Nielsen).
Monk soon upsets the hierarchical order, first by getting rid of the suspicious Mrs. McMurray by placing poisonous mushrooms in her food, so that she has to be taken off the island to the hospital. Becoming aware of Horton’s writing hypocrisy, Monk plants the seeds of rebellion in the other two servants. He is able to manipulate Horton into doubling their pay and getting their living quarters moved from a lowly “staff house” into the mansion’s twelve bedrooms, the owner holding out for the swimming pool still being off-limits.
When food shopping becomes impossible and supplies reduced to just rice, Monk suggests hunting in the island’s large woods for their food. Horton is unable to shoot the beautiful stag in his sights, but not Monk. His serving the meat to the family is a further sign of humiliation, as well as the fact that now Monk and the servants eat at the same table as the Hortons. Monk allows Horton to take credit for the kills—possibly as a sign that power has shifted from the employer to himself?
Horton tries to keep up his public pretense of liberal advocte, even speaking by phone with famous writer Upton Sinclair (Fisher Stevens). This is cut short when one day a newspaper declares that Horton is a fraud
At one point Monk tells Julia “Nature has a way of creeping into the modern world, bringing out the beast in some and the beauty in others.” That it does, as we are shown, with violence erupting in the last act, a bloody act of “the worm turning” restoring the previous status of everyone.
Worth pondering is Monk’s statement, whether or not it is sincere, “Sometimes I think this plague was sent from the Lord above just to level the playing field.” Just as in Biblical times, there are people who might believe this. What must their concept of God be?
The ending seems to convey a note of cynicism, there being no real hero in this film. It also seems to bear out the observations of the author of Ecclesiastes. As a satire against” limousine liberals,” the film could well be embraced by the MAGA crowd. The earnest cast makes it watchable by all, regardless of ideology.
This review will be in the September issue of VP along with a set of questions for reflection and/or discussion. If you have found reviews on this site helpful, please consider purchasing a subscription or individual issue in The Store.
