MOVIE OF THE WEEK #3 (6/19/13): THE EAST

"For the last time, none of us brought a Ouija board!" Sarah Moss (Brit Marling, blind hair in red coat) Is flanked by members of an anarchist group in a scene from director Zal Batmanglij's environmental drama THE EAST. Credit: Myles Aronowitz © 2013 Fox Searchlight Pictures. All Rights Reserved.

KEY CAST MEMBERS: Brit Marling, Alexander Skarsgård, Julia Ormond, Ellen Page, Toby Kebbell, Patricia Clarkson, Shiloh Fernandez, Aldis Hodge, Hillary Baack, Jason Ritter and Danielle MacDonald

WRITER(S): Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij 

DIRECTOR: Zal Batmanglij 

WEB SITE: http://www.theeastmovie.com/

THE PLOT: The latest film from frequent collaborators Zal Batmanglij and Brit Marling, The East stars the latter as Sarah Moss, a former FBI agent now working in the private sector for Hiller Brood, an elite private intelligence company. Sarah – who lives with her boyfriend Tim (Jason Ritter) – is excited about her new job, which requires her to infiltrate radical groups to figure out who they might be attacking, why and how. That information is critical to how Hiller Brood makes its money, which is why Sharon (Patricia Clarkson) is sending her star pupil undercover to uncover a mysterious anarchist collective known as "The East."

The East seeks revenge on corporations who it believes try to cover up their social/environmental misdoings, which is why those companies are willing to pay Hiller Brood handsomely to stop their "jams" (i.e. acts against big business, some less civil than others). Sarah, true to her reputation, works her way into The East's ranks, meetings several young idealistic members such as Doc (Toby Kebbell), Izzy (Ellen Page) Thumbs (Aldis Hodge), Luca (Shiloh Fernandez), Tess (Danielle MacDonald) the hearing-impaired Eve (real-life hearing impaired actress Hillary Baack) and the group's leader, Benji (Alexander Skarsgård).

But the deeper Sarah goes into The East, the more she realizes that the people she is supposed to be trying to protect may be the very people she might need to be fighting ... And therein lies a conflict of interests that might be of great interest to everyone around Sarah – including Sarah herself. 

THE TAKE: In case you haven't seen some of Marling's previous work in films like Another Earth, you might want to stop reading now and go back and catch some of her other films. That's because they will only serve to give you a further appreciation of just how good and consistent she is as both a writer and actress.

Powered by focused directing by Batmanglij, The East finds Marling playing a smart, confident character that is more than the one note woman in power that one might find in a Zero Dark Thirty. (Sorry Jessica Chastain; you were great, but your character snarled so much that at times you felt like a female Clint Eastwood). Marling portrays Sarah in a fashion that is smart when she should be, confused when she should be and intuitive when her character's instincts are expertly inserted into play. But without her ability to balance a character who is in control of her situation but struggles with growing moral conflict as more and more details are revealed to her is no easy feat, but Marling does it with a savant level of skill that keeps The East moving towards its apex.

Now, this could not be accomplished without the superior performances of the film's supporting cast, each of whom plays a different yet vital role to give you a complete package of the stakes at hand from both ends of the spectrum. The recent-but-already-forgotten Matt Damon/John Krasinski vehicle  Promised Land tried to do this as but failed due to a poor need for a twist; The East combines an excellent script with actors who are able to make the story powerful enough to stand up on its own.

Skarsgård is compelling as Benji, providing his character with a sense of personal depth that feels authentic in way may be his best role to date. Likewise, Page channels her usual feminist-feel angst into a controlled fury while Kebbell adds a earnestness to his that play well against Marling's character, serving almost as a moral gauge for her own growing moral conflicts. Even Baack is great in her limited role, proving that there are no wasted scenes in The East, only important ones.

Then again, given the great story the cast has to work with thanks to the efforts of Marling and Batmanglij, their performances should be good, for the script has twists, turns and reveals that play with your thoughts as much as they do the characters. Motivations and the subsequent choices each character makes are key to understanding and appreciating the story as a whole, even when the mood changes from morality play to more of that of an espionage tale. It's what makes a difference in The East being easily dismissed as another environmental/spy story and having the quality to stand on its own cinematic two feet. 

PARTING SHOT: A film that blends drama with societal consciousness into an effective package, The East is the latest example of why Batmanglij and Marling are among the best and brightest young filmmakers working today.

RATING (OUT OF FOUR BUCKETS OF POPCORN):