The Bad Batch Review: Its Social Rejects vs. Cannibals in Dystopia U.S.A.

If you cant build a Trump-sized wall to stop immigrants and undesirables from polluting America the Beautiful, just send them out into a wasteland outside of Texas to fend for themselves. Thats the premise driving The Bad Batch, a dystopian fable from writer-director Ana Lily Amirpour, whose stunning 2014 debut feature an Iranian feminist vampire western called A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night showed promise that this follow-up only partially lives up to.

The filmmaker puts the focus on societys rejects, each tattooed with a bad batch number and then exiled forever from the good batch crowd. The British actress, model and photographer Suki Waterhouse stars as Arlen, a human discard whos given the heave-ho and told that no person within the territory beyond this fence is a resident of the United States of America or shall be acknowledged, recognized or governed by the laws and governing bodies therein. Our President couldnt have said it better.

That leaves Arlen prey to cannibals, the kind who think nothing of drugging her and hacking off parts of her arm and leg. Jason Momoa plays Miami Man, the groups leader that Arlen inexplicably crushes on. She escapes from the people-eaters HQ on a skateboard, with Miami Mans young daughter Honey (Jayda Fink) in tow. Still, her prospects look grim until a mute stranger, played by a nearly unrecognizable Jim Carrey, picks her up with a shopping cart.

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I am not making this up. And I havent even mentioned Keanu Reeves yet. He plays a cult leader called the Dream, who runs Comfort, the community that hides from the cannibals behind shipping containers and offers sanctuary to pilgrims like Arlen and Honey. This charismatic figure comes with his own personal Disco DJ and enjoys protection from heavily armed pregnant women wearing t-shirts proclaiming, The Dream is Inside Me.

Amirpour dips into an seemingly bottomless supply of signs and symbols to show us an imploding society all too recognizable as our own, and youll marvel at hallucinatory brilliance of her images. Yet The Bad Batch never finds a way to fuse its scattered intentions into a cohesive whole. The filmmaker influences range from El Topo to Mad Max: Fury Road, but shes lost a little of herself this time. Still, her talent remains indisputable. We cant wait to see what she does next.