Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite Debuts to Strong Venice Reception

Overview

• Premiered in competition at the Venice Film Festival to strong applause and broad critical attention.
• The story follows an unclaimed missile targeting the United States that forces urgent attribution and response decisions, with Idris Elba as the U.S. president.
• Rebecca Ferguson leads the White House crisis team in a cast that also includes Jared Harris, Gabriel Basso, Tracy Letts, Anthony Ramos, Moses Ingram, Jonah Hauer-King, Greta Lee and Jason Clarke.
• The film replays roughly twenty minutes of a nuclear scare across three overlapping chapters to reveal differing perspectives.
• Kathryn Bigelow frames the film as a caution on nuclear risk and the value of informed diplomacy, with Noah Oppenheim’s reporting background and StratCom consultation shaping its realism; Netflix plans an October release.