"War on Everyone" (Guardian 07/10/16)

War on Everyone *

Dir: John Michael McDonagh. With: Alexander Skarsgård, Michael Pena, Tessa Thompson, Stephanie Sigman. 98 mins. Cert: 15
 
When our culture is finally swallowed by snark, all movies will resemble this benumbing buddy-cop facsimile, a major misfire from The Guard’s John Michael McDonagh. Rather than a plot, McDonagh here offers a monotonous succession of low blows, pitting New Mexico detectives Michael Pena and Alexander Skarsgård against various minority punchbags and prompting them to gurgle insensitively – a careworn post-Gervaisian tactic that might only be excusable if these jabs were funny. That title’s fair warning at least, but it’s hard to engage in any rewarding way with a film in which not a single word is meant or felt – unless McDonagh really is the worst kind of reactionary. 

War on Everyone opens in cinemas nationwide today.