Film Review: Guantanamo Bay Drama ‘Camp X-Ray’ With Kristen Stewart

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly versionE-mail page to friendE-mail page to friendPDF versionPDF version
Average: 5 (2 votes)

CHICAGO – The haunting setting of Guantanamo Bay is used for elementary emotional effect in “Camp X-Ray,” a prison drama electrified more by its performances than its hopes of a profound narrative about the interactions between gatekeeper and captive.

HollywoodChicago.com Oscarman rating: 2.5/5.0
Rating: 2.5/5.0

In a role that further expands her dramatic potential, Kristen Stewart stars as Cole, a member of the United States Military Police Corps assigned to the ethics battle within Gitmo. Soon after stepping into her new workspace, she is sternly warned about its different moral conditions to those of regular prisons: Per the definitions in the Geneva Convention, the men locked up here are known as “detainees,” not prisoners; most aggressively, these inmates are considered as part of an active war against America, though their reasons for such acts are rarely discussed. Taking on aggression as a character feature to the role she must play as a guard, Cole works the different cell blocks, and attempts to distance herself from the feeling of empathy for the detainees.

These efforts are challenged when she pushes the library cart to the cell of detainee Ali (Peyman Moaadi, from “A Separation”). Chatty and inquisitive, Ali tries to talk with her about the various books on the cart, and even shares his frustration that the library doesn’t have the final “Harry Potter” book that he’s been waiting on for two years. Cole struggles to treat him without compassion while circling his cell block, and the interaction ends with him humiliating her in front of his cellmates, and her peers.

“Camp X-Ray” opens at Chicago’s Gene Siskel Film Center on November 7, 2014. Featuring Kristen Stewart, Peyman Moaadi, Lane Garrison, and John Carroll Lynch. Written and directed by Peter Sattler. Rated “R”

StarContinue reading for Nick Allen’s full review of “Camp X-Ray”

Camp X-Ray
‘Camp X-Ray’
Photo credit: IFC Films

StarContinue reading for Nick Allen’s full review of “Camp X-Ray”

User Login

Free Giveaway Mailing

TV, DVD, BLU-RAY & THEATER REVIEWS

  • Manhunt

    CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Dan Baker on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on March 21st, 2024, reviewing the new streaming series “Manhunt” – based on the bestseller by James L. Swanson – currently streaming on Apple TV+.

  • Topdog/Underdog, Invictus Theatre

    CHICAGO – When two brothers confront the sins of each other and it expands into a psychology of an entire race, it’s at a stage play found in Chicago’s Invictus Theatre Company production of “Topdog/Underdog,” now at their new home at the Windy City Playhouse through March 31st, 2024. Click TD/UD for tickets/info.

Advertisement



HollywoodChicago.com on Twitter

archive

HollywoodChicago.com Top Ten Discussions
referendum
tracker