“Anniversary” Tracks the Disillusionment of Family and Democracy
This review was originally published on Film Obsessive.
An anniversary party, by most accounts, is a celebration. A time to come together with loved ones to reflect on years of dedication or connection. Of course, family events exist on a very delicate precipice where jubilation can careen off into something hostile at any moment. No one knows better how to love you or hurt you than family, but what about the ones who marry into the family? How do they play into these dynamics? In Jan Komasa’s Anniversary, yearly anniversary parties track the disillusionment of a family, and democracy at large.
When we meet the family at the heart of Anniversary, it’s the twentieth wedding anniversary of Ellen (Diane Lane) and Paul (Kyle Chandler). They have four children: stand-up comic Anna (Madeline Brewer), floundering sci-fi writer Josh (Dylan O’Brien), environmental lawyer Cynthia (Zoey Deutch), and teenager Birdie (Mckenna Grace). The three adult children descend upon their childhood home for the sake of their parents’ image. Anna comes alone, Cynthia brings her husband (Daryl McCormack), and Josh brings his new girlfriend, Liz (Phoebe Dynevor). Ellen immediately recognizes Liz as a former student who was kicked out of Georgetown University for her radical ideas. Over the course of five years, using the anniversary celebration as an anchor, Anniversary looks at what got Liz expelled and her ability to change both the family and the nation.
A Lionsgate release. Photo courtesy of Owen Behan
Liz, with the help of Josh, writes a bestselling book called The Change. It’s a fundamental rethinking of the two-party system of American democracy. She makes the bold thesis that a single, central party is the superior means of governing the country. As the film moves from year to year, we see the rising power of people who believe in The Change. They fly a new flag that resembles the traditional American one, but the block of stars is now in the middle of the stripes. It’s a visual reminder that Liz’s concept is a rebuttal to the idea of political “sides.” Couldn’t we be reunited as a nation if we just removed the ends of the spectrum? When you think about it, though, forcibly removing “sides” means you’re creating new ones. In Anniversary, instead of Democrats and Republicans, you have those who support The Change and those who don’t. Humans are destined to create alliances, to find identities based on their beliefs. We cannot fight that, but we must be able to communicate and work with one another.
When Josh and Liz talk about The Change, they say it’s just an idea, a new way of thinking. They don’t consider the fact that the idea is infectious. That humans are so fundamentally desperate to find someone and something to believe in that they’ll grasp wholeheartedly onto any charismatic person who provides them with an answer. Ideas are everything. They’re how societies are built and broken. The mere germ of a concept can lead to genocide, advances in freedoms, and entire new ways of living, both for better and for worse. We’re all obsessed with how we got to this point in American democracy, as though we haven’t seen the likes of it before. But we have, we just haven’t learned from our past. The most important things to a lot of people are money, status, and money. Until that changes, there will always be someone willing to eschew all morals for the sake of power. Perhaps it’s naive and utopian to dream of a future where we’re not ruthlessly exploiting people, minerals, the environment, and anything else we can get our hands on in pursuit of significance.
A Lionsgate release. Photo courtesy of Owen Behan
Anniversary has a pulse on the current social climate, but so does the viewer. The film is best when the family members are in the throes of a disagreement about the ever-changing world around them. While it’s interesting to see how things can shift in five years, the film’s thesis feels better served when we linger in these moments with the various family members. Early on, Paul tells Ellen to be open-minded about Liz saying, “People change.” Ellen scoffs and says, “No, they don’t.” While it may seem like a nihilistic attitude, there’s truth in Ellen’s reply. People don’t change unless they want to.
Anniversary is begging to be a miniseries. A miniseries along these lines does already exist in the form of the underseen British series Years and Years, but that show is six years old now. So much has escalated since 2019, and Anniversary feels frighteningly relevant. The film, and our society, would benefit most from the conversations we avoid.
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