‘Sacrifice’ movie review: Chris Evans, Anya Taylor-Joy bumble along in this confused satire

Satirising your own self is a tricky art form. It requires a balance of contempt and tolerance for the same party. Romain Gavras struggles to find this balance in his latest film – Sacrifice – that makes a pretty tame attempt at poking fun at Hollywood’s performative way of life.

Mike Tyler (Chris Evans) opens the film with the nervous energy of an actor seeking to redeem himself after a public mental breakdown. He chooses billionaire Ben Bracken’s (Vincent Cassel) environment charity gala as the stage from which he will launch his woke comeback. Being hosted on a remote island in Greece, at a marble quarry lined with moving neon signs that read ‘Make Earth Cool Again’, the gala turns out to be exactly what you expect to get out of a room full of some of the most successful capitalists.

At this cool quarry setting, Gavras carves out the first half of the film, as he sets up the slightly self-deprecating, but mostly vain actor in need of redemption. His quest is thwarted by a ragtag group of aspiring eco-terrorists, who also have their personal ambitions attached to this event. Led by Joan (Anya Taylor-Joy), the group interrupt a rather interpretive musical performance by Charli XCX, and announce their plans to sacrifice three individuals from this gathering in order to stop a calamitous volcanic eruption.

As Mike Tyler, Chris Evans gets the opportunity to be the comedic backbone of the film, which sells itself as a multi-genre of sorts. Gavras really tries to overfill his script with several emotions at once, but it doesn’t work out in the film’s favour. The sincerity of the group’s violent cause, being mistaken for performance art is one of the last times the film is able to find its footing. As the scenes then shift to a remote location with Mike Tyler, Ben Bracken, and Charli XCX’s fellow dancer Katie (Ambika Mod) getting kidnapped, Sacrifice struggles to redefine its purpose. Gavras finds himself stuck between trying to balance the humiliation ritual of the bid bad Hollywood people, while also fitting these characters into some kind of ‘found-family’ feel-good fantasy.

At just over 1 hour-30 mins, Sacrifice demands that you let go of any expectations you may have racked up coming into this after watching Gavras directing Yung Lean in the Storm music video. Yung Lean plays Arthur, alongside Jade Croot’s Louise – Joan’s younger siblings who accompany her in this radical quest. Meanwhile, John Malkovich as their father Gunnar, and Salma Hayek as Ben Bracken’s wife also make short-lived appearances in a film that doesn’t quite do justice to the cast it has access to.

With Sacrifice, Romain Gavras finds himself replicating a self-deprecating genre that Hollywood has found itself quite obsessed with lately. However, he loses his way and lands into a much more tender film that could have done with a different director.

Sacrifice is available for streaming on Netflix