Atropia – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

ATROPIA – Review by Nadine Whitney

December 8, 2025December 14, 2025 Nadine Whitney alia shawkat, Atropia, Callum Turner, Channing Tatum, Chloë Sevingy, Hailey Gates, Jane Lee, Military Industrial Complex, Priscilla Garita, Tim Heidecker, Zahra Alzubaidi

Actor and journalist Hailey Gates initially set out to make a documentary about Californian desert military bases that were set up as enemy towns so soldiers could train with role-players acting as potential insurgents. The towns are real fakes, they exist, but the U.S. Military weren’t keen on Gates potentially revealing sensitive information. Thus, the scattershot fictional satire Atropia came into being. In her debut feature Gates manages to hit some targets with comedic, and at times, sincere barbs. However, when it comes to the film as a whole the comedy and satire goes through the attrition of repetitiveness and the sincere concerns about the ludicrous nature of putting army cadets through such a misguided and useless exercise gets lost in the mix.

Festivals Reviews

ATROPIA (Sundance FF 2025) – Review by Leslie Combemale

February 3, 2025February 3, 2025 Leslie Combemale (Sundance FF 2025), alia shawkat, Atropia, Callum Turner, chloe sevigny, Grand Jury Prize, Hailey Gates, Jane Levy

Atropia is not without its positive aspects. It starts with a bang, showing a strong point of view with its satirical take of both the military and actors trying to make it in Hollywood. Borrowing elements from M*A*S*H, Stripes, and a few more obscure indie war films, the story is of a fictional military training facility in the deserts of California nicknamed “The Box”. Soldiers sent there spend an immersive 24/7 in a created Iraqi village trying to ferret out dangerous bad actors, before they’re killed by various bombs, insurgents with machine guns, or other potential war drama. Local actors live there, with limited water and other essentials, rotating roles as hostiles and friendlies, depending on the day. Wanna-be “real” actor Fayuz (Alia Shawkat) goes back and forth between helping other townspeople method acting, and things like vying for attention from imbedded Hollywood A-listers who might take her out of this dead-end job.