When a single, unattributed missile is launched at the United States, a race begins to determine who is responsible and how to respond.

Kathryn Bigelow’s new film is another engrossing political thriller, this time a fictional story that imagines how the United States would react if an unknown adversary sent a nuclear weapon hurtling toward the country. It’s as frightening as any horror movie could be, not because of spectacle, but because of how controlled, immediate, and convincing it feels. I thought it was excellent. Bigelow is one of the finest directors around, and this is her at the top of her game — juggling multiple threads and characters, and weaving these interlinked stories together through three 18-minute segments that follow different groups and perspectives from the moment a nuke is identified to the presumed moment of impact in Chicago.

The film features an ensemble cast including Tracy Letts, Rebecca Ferguson and Jason Clarke, with Idris Elba as the president faced with the impossible choice of whether to respond or stand down, despite not knowing who launched the weapon. The structure is expertly handled, with each segment deepening our understanding and raising the tension, although I did feel the first act was the strongest and the final act the weakest, which took the shine off a little. Even so, it remains utterly gripping and nerve-wracking throughout.

What makes ‘A House of Dynamite‘ so powerful isn’t only its plausibility, but its clarity in showing how chaos, fear, and protocol intersect when everything is at stake. Bigelow captures that unnerving sense of people trying to act decisively in a situation where every action could be catastrophic. It’s a film about decision-making under pressure, and about how frighteningly thin the line is between control and collapse. It may be fictional, but it feels urgently, uncomfortably true — a testament to Bigelow’s mastery of tension and her ability to turn uncertainty itself into drama. The result is a film that lingers long after it ends, less for its spectacle than for the questions it leaves hanging in the air.

Rating: 4/5

Directed By: Kathryn Bigelow

Starring: Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Gabriel Basso, Jared Harris, Tracy Letts, Anthony Ramos, Moses Ingram, Jonah Hauer-King, Greta Lee and Jason Clarke

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt32376165/