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Threads is a gripping, miserable experience

(No, not that one)

Depicting the aftermath of nuclear fallout with unflinching clarity, the movie follows the legacy of The War Game, the pseudo-documentary that was convincing enough in 1966 that it had to be pulled from broadcast on account of being “too horrifying” (but was then put into theaters). If Christopher Nolan only gives a stylish glimpse to the horrors of nuclear aftermath — a short sequence wherein Japanese citizens are eerily reduced to dust while Cillian Murphy stares guiltily at the camera — then Threads spends its entire second half demonstrating just how reductive that portrayal is. The resource-strapped British government quickly turns fascist; the effects of radiation poisoning are rendered with a lot of bodily specifics; and the threadbare (sorry) characters just muddle through it, and the film never really gives them a reason why they should keep going.

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