'Imperium' is pulpy but effective

Star Daniel Radcliffe gives an edgy performance as an FBI agent who goes undercover inside domestic terrorist organizations. The film is a reminder that not all the terrorists in the US are imports.

|
Lionsgate Premiere
Daniel Radcliffe stars as Nate Foster in 'Imperium'.

In the pulpy but effective “Imperium,” Daniel Radcliffe plays Nate Foster, an FBI agent who goes undercover inside domestic terrorist organizations bent on getting “America back” from Jews, African-Americans, and others deemed insufficiently white. Radcliffe has done an admirable job over the past few years of shucking off his Harry Potter vibe, none more so than here. (Playing a skinhead, he also shucks off his hair for this film.) Radcliffe’s performance is edgy as befitting a character who is always on the verge of being found out. 

Posing as an Iraq War veteran who has become furiously disillusioned with what America has become, Nate is a nimble dissimulator, able to concoct a lifesaving cover story on a moment’s notice. It’s not only his own skin he saves: In one especially scary moment, he restrains a pair of “white power” goons from attacking an interracial couple by setting off a store alarm. (His excuse is that he didn’t want them to be captured by the store’s surveillance cameras.) 

Directed and written by Daniel Ragussis and drawn from a story by Michael German, upon whom Nate is partially based, “Imperium” is a reminder that not all the terrorists in the US are imports. The homegrown examples in this film, who often are at tactical odds with each other, are especially frightening because, on the surface, some of them seem like typical all-American suburban types. The most interesting character in “Imperium” is not even Nate. It’s Gerry Conway (Sam Trammell), a seemingly normal family man who reads the great philosophers and loves the music of Brahms and Tchaikovsky, even making an exception for the recordings of Jewish maestro Leonard Bernstein. Terrorists come in all flavors. Grade: B (Rated R for language throughout.)

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to 'Imperium' is pulpy but effective
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Movies/2016/0819/Imperium-is-pulpy-but-effective
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe