“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
– Writer/philosopher George Santayana
There’s a presumption that everything that happens to you now, for the first time, is happening now for the first time. This is partially what makes parables from B.C.E. resonant, poems from the Elizabethan Era oft-quoted, and tales from Old Hollywood still popular; there’s a timelessness to them due to the internal notion that we, as humans, are still feeling the same feelings and, therefore, need some of the same stories. The other side of that is humanity has tendency to replicate the same reaction to peril, even more than a hundred years and a few generations apart — for better or worse. For the new project from co-writers/co-directors Joseph Schuman and Austin Stark (The Runner; The God Committee), Coup!, the filmmaking team takes audiences back to 1918 when the United States was at the start of a flu pandemic in order to examine class warfare on a small, focused scale. From start to finish, Coup! is a mesmerizing dark comedy that will have you questioning where you stand on social issues before ending with a hard period in a specific viewpoint.
Peter Sarsgaard as Floyd Monk in COUP!. Photo courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment.
It’s 1918 and President Woodrow Wilson is fighting two wars on two fronts: one alongside the Allies against the Central Powers and one against a potent influenza ravaging the country. While the rich isolated, it left the working class vulnerable, forcing some businesses to close their doors permanently, costing workers their homes and/or lives in the process. Using his typewriter as a weapon, journalist J.C. Horton (Billy Magnussen) continuously attacks Wilson for his handling of the epidemic, encouraging Wilson to do more to protect the populace, including closing schools, business, and more, as a means of ensuring that no more lives are lost. Things seem to be going well for Horton and his family on the remote property they’ve holed up in while they wait for the virus to dissipate, that is until the arrival of Floyd Monk (Peter Sarsgaard), a replacement cook who thinks the status quo could use a shake-up.
While EoM strives for a spoiler-free review whenever initially covering a film, Coup! requires addressing certain themes which, while done so with a certain discretion, is not entirely spoiler-free. Keep that in mind progressing forward.
L-R: Peter Sarsgaard as Floyd Monk and Billy Magnussen as J.C. Horton in COUP!. Photo courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment.
When one thinks of a thriller, they tend to imagine a mystery in which the audience is seeking some kind of truth unfurling before them through a story. In this case, Schuman and Stark don’t so much entice via complex questions so much as put the pieces before the audience as clearly as they can for us to arrange. We know who Monk is (or rather, isn’t) from the jump, establishing that while Horton holds the keys to his estate, Monk (and us) knows more than he does and that puts the power in different hands. This matters a great deal in establishing the key difference between the two figures — one who we’re meant to think is dangerous and the other who actually is. Audiences are likely going to miss this at first between Monk’s unkempt/uncouth visage is in such stark contrast to the wealth of the Hortons, but, scene by scene, choice by choice, Schuman and Stark reveal to us who the real dangerous one is, the one not to be trusted, the one who threatens to bring the estate crashing down, letting the lurking dangers outside the walls in. It’s a delicate balance they’ve created, especially through the lens of the 1918 Great Influenza pandemic, which is so greatly mirrored in the exact same mistakes and needs of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic which has been classified as endemic status regarding PPE, resources, government leadership, business/school closings, the closing of ranks by the wealthy class, and the shouldering of the brunt of it by the working class.
Monk may be the one taking advantage of a dead man, may be the one who doesn’t mind taking a piss right off the bow of a ship in broad daylight, but does he speak of the plight of the working class while depending on them for the safety and care of his family? Does he put others in harm’s way to provide and protect or does he do things himself? When challenged on his convictions, does Monk shirk or face them head on? Schuman and Stark use the language of then to demonstrate how things haven’t necessarily changed in the now, hucksters and charlatans taking advantage of audiences via the written word then-as-now, but also through video, social media, and a variety of channels that can enhance one’s public persona through the manipulation of information to create a façade that enriches self while placing others in peril. Put simply: only one of these two men is a proper shitbag and these types of people persist today, no matter how fair and balanced they once professed to be. These layers enable Coup! to entertain as a dark comedy while possessing a cutting bite of commentary on the world as it is.
L-R: Sarah Gadon as Julie Horton and Billy Magnussen as J.C. Horton in COUP!. Photo courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment.
While the film is an ensemble piece, in order to keep context light and spoilers absent, let’s focus on Sarsgaard (The Batman; Lost Daughter) and Magnussen who beautifully bear the brunt of the narrative. Sarsgaard’s performance delights in the way that he can speak out both sides of his mouth without jumping the shark too soon. Watching Sarsgaard is like observing someone juggle flaming chainsaws, giggling raucously at the unease building within the audience, each line delivery, each specific movement geared toward finding just the right notch to rachet Horton’s unease while simultaneously winning over everyone else. Likewise, we know that Horton is a proper muckraker, a journalist with progressive ideas who works within the realm of sensationalism far more than truth, whom Magnussen splendidly embodies as an absolute coward when his status or wealth is irrelevant to a situation. Those who have seen Magnussen in either Game Night (2018) or Road House (2024) understand that Magnussen has range and, frankly, it comes wonderfully into play here as we’re meant to understand that Horton is a “man of the people,” until, of course, equity is actually being discussed and then there’s “time and place.”
Peter Sarsgaard as Floyd Monk in COUP!. Photo courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment.
When it comes to class warfare, some would tell you that “eat the rich” is an overreaction to the widening gap between classes and those folks will likely be delicious marinated in a pineapple teriyaki with green and red peppers, onions, and a coconut jasmine rice. The rich earn their riches not just through their own hard work (if applicable at all), but the work of others who, in most cases, are treated as disposable. How did you get your groceries in 2020? Eat at restaurants? You did so because someone else deemed the working class as “essential.” One can certainly make the case for that status, but why were the staff at GameStop looped into the same category? Because a big wig realized that since they sell computer equipment, too, they could keep their stores open and force employees to make a choice between a paycheck and their health. The systems were broken in the early 1900s and Schuman and Stark’s Coup! highlights how the same problems persist in the 2020s. Only thing worse than a rich asshole decrying the needs of the working class is someone who tries to take advantage of the divide for their own gain. If we can learn the lesson this time, maybe we’ll have a different outcome in another hundred years. But if past is prologue, one doubts it. Maybe what we need is exactly what Schuman and Stark suggest: a coup.
In select theaters August 2nd, 2024.
Available on VOD and digital September 3rd, 2024.
For more information, head to the official Greenwich Entertainment Coup! webpage.
Final Score: 4 out of 5.
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Categories: Films To Watch, Recommendation, Reviews, streaming
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