The East Reviews
Top CriticIts morally ambiguous investigation of extreme left-wing politics is ... light years away from usual multiplex concerns.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
The latest collaboration between director Zal Batmanglij and screenwriter Brit Marling suffers from the same problem as their previous picture, Sound of My Voice: It's taut, compelling, unpredictable and completely wipes out in the final few minutes.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
"The East" leaves questions unanswered, but at least it asks those questions.
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| Original Score: B
A fast-rising newcomer to film, the willowy Marling is maturing fast, and encouragingly unwilling to dumb herself down for stock girlfriend roles. This is her strongest work yet and I hope a harbinger of much more to come.
Marling and Batmanglij bring an evenhanded perspective to their portrayals of the characters and issues involved.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/4
A watchably confused eco-thriller that's never sure who its heroes are.
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| Original Score: 2.5/4
It is a smart, well-acted drama, and another chance for Marling to exercise her unique talents, creating intriguing characters on the page and the screen.
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| Original Score: 3.5/5
"The East" prizes an initial air of mystery over consistent drama, and as a result ends up squandering its intriguing premise.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
As is often the case with people who become major stars, [Marling] seems as if she has always been there. She's new and yet familiar, as if we've known her all along.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/4
As a scriptwriter, actress Brit Marling has so far demonstrated an unerring instinct for creating meaty, if somewhat hard-to-swallow, roles for herself.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Another project that proves this actress and filmmaker has the chops that will guarantee her longevity in the movie industry.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
The East is not a very good movie, hobbled by an excess of plot, a lack of believability and big gaps of logic.
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| Original Score: 2/4
When the filmmakers try to flesh out the terrorists, they fall back on the conservative cliche that they're spoiled rich kids, mad at their parents.
A taut espionage drama that pits global corporations against a radical band of ecoterrorists.
Marling has a focus and poise that keeps us invested in her character's journey - even when the film begins to falter, as The East eventually does through inconsistency and expedience.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
The reason the movie works, despite some "movie-stupid" developments in the second half, has everything to do with the low-key and unaffected quality Marling brings to the screen.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Marling and Batmangli are smart enough to know that character and ideas matter, and how the presence of those things can improve action and suspense.
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| Original Score: 3.5/5
In most respects a conventional genre picture. But it's passionate (and weird) enough to evolve into something mysterious and moving.
As uncertain as she is as a screenwriter, Marling is even less accomplished as an actress - problems she compounds by invariably giving herself the lead role in her own scripts.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
It gives us an interesting character with genuine moral ambiguity and demands that she make tough choices and that we think about what tactics we support -- and then it completely fritters it all away with a pat ending.
Full Review
| Original Score: 6/10
The whole movie has the smugness of a cult. At one and the same time it's devoid of reality and insufferably full of itself.
Almost but not quite the truly terrific movie that Batmanglij and Marling are going to make one day ...
By spicing up a complex morality tale marked by sophisticated themes with down and dirty back stabbing and betrayals, the movie turns corporate malfeasance into a spy game that is entertaining without being dumbed down.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
This well-paced story is tense and thoughtful, and is anchored by a trio of terrific performances.
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| Original Score: 3/4
The East makes for a passable thriller, as 1 percenters get theirs in satisfying, if incrementally implausible ways.
Eco-terrorism drives the plot of The East, but this propulsive thriller is laced with a humanism that trumps any political agenda.
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| Original Score: 3/4
"The East" is a neat little thriller about ends and means and ethical quandaries.
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| Original Score: 3.5/5
This great, industrial-strength thriller is busy thinking even when it's quiet.
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| Original Score: 4/5
The East suffers from the same weakness as the cult members Sarah works so hard to understand: a questionable definition of morality that overpowers an ultimate sense of reason.
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| Original Score: 2/4
Coming in our moment of recent domestic terror, the movie has a boldness in diving into the whys of political violence.
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| Original Score: 4/5
It's disappointing that, for all its empathy and equilibrium, The East has nowhere to go after the script backs itself into a corner.
This absurdly superficial and tendentious drama, directed with no distinction, wastes a superb cast in the interest of self-righteous attitudinizing.
A compelling portrait of what gets lost (and found) when a cause becomes an obsession.
Full Review
| Original Score: B+
If "The East" were from anyone other than writer/director Zal Batmanglij and writer/star Brit Marling, I'd be much more excited about it.
Full Review
| Original Score: B+
The second picture in a fascinating collaboration with producer-writer-star Brit Marling, this clever, involving spy drama builds to a terrific level of intrigue before losing some steam in its second half.
Undercover anxieties drive satisfying eco-minded suspense film.
