Tim Heidecker

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.