Captive State

Last night I went to see a Thursday preview of Captive State and, while it was not quite what I was expecting, I really enjoyed it.  In fact, I am still thinking about it!  Ten years after an alien invasion of Earth, a group of insurgents are trying to spark a rebellion against the aliens who control the city of Chicago and a group of collaborators are trying to stop them.  One of the insurgents, Rafe Drummond (Jonathan Majors), was involved in a former rebellion that failed and is presumed dead but he resurfaces to organize a new cell with members who communicate with each other through an elaborate sequence of messages (everyone has implants which monitor their actions) and create an intricate plot to bomb a unity rally at Soldier Field.  Police Detective William Mulligan (John Goodman), the former partner of Rafe's father who was killed during the initial invasion, sees signs around the city that Rafe has resurfaced and attempts to quash the rebellion.  Gabriel Drummond (Ashton Sanders), Rafe's younger brother, is the unwitting pawn in both sides of the rebellion as he is used as a courier by the insurgents to get a message to his brother and he used by Mulligan to infiltrate the cell.  The most intriguing, and often the most frustrating, aspect of this movie is that you never really know anyone's true motivation because the audience is dropped in the middle of things without a lot of explanation of who the characters are.  There were many times when I wasn't sure what was going on but felt intuitively that every detail would eventually lead to something very important.  That proved to be the case with a reveal in the third act that pretty much blew my mind.  This movie is not really about the aliens but, rather, the humans who collude with them to create a totalitarian state and what a small group of people are willing to do to end the oppression.  It is gritty, fast-paced, and exciting with hand-held camera work that puts the audience in the middle of the action.  I found it to be compelling, if sometimes confusing, and very entertaining.