The First Purge

Simpleminded political propaganda on the one hand, but with its over-the-top violence it could also be viewed as a so-bad-it’s-funny/so-offensive-just-to-be-offensive instant cult-classic on the other. After the rise of a political party, the New Founding Fathers of America (boilerplate Trump-ian/Alt-Right), an experiment is conducted – no laws for 12 hours on Staten Island. Of course this quickly turns into a clichéd race war between whites and blacks (the KKK even shows up in one scene!) If you can get past that, the film is quite enjoyable and contains all the classic Purge trappings. By the final crescendo we see the NFFA hit squad, all unnecessarily wearing blackface minstrel masks (sure the be the hottest new cosplay costume at comic book conventions). More crazy/random things happen, like exploding teddy bears as grandmas laugh, people randomly porking in the street, an ice cream truck on fire as it collides with another car for no reason, etc. Some bad acting takes place, like a cameo from former Obama adviser/CNN pundit Van Jones. There’s some decent acting as well – Rotimi Paul as the scary-as-hell Skeletor, Y’lan Noel as the lead, Dmitri (I want to see this guy in more roles), and Mugga as Dolores provided some the funniest lines in a any film I’ve seen all Summer – “I shit my pants.” Forget the critics and dumb user reviews. While this film is flawed, at least it’s entertaining and interesting.

[R]