Throughout, Alex comes across sordid men with weapons and is forced to deal with them by any means necessary. But more taxingly, she comes across people from her past. A brief interaction with her abusive ex-boyfriend exposes old wounds that have yet to heal fully and may never. The basis of Alex’s relationship with her sister (Emily Gateley) and her mother broadens the discussion on sexual assault, as well as the unfair distinctions between the word of a woman as opposed to the word of a man. With the relationships at the core of this thriller, it is clear that the filmmaker aims for more than just aimless violence, even if those aspirations aren’t fully met.
In addition to directing and writing, Hall shot and edited the film. The cinematography foregrounds Alex’s perspective by employing close-ups to capture the emotion and struggle on her face as the threat of violence looms nearby. The visual aesthetic is distinctly rustic, with corroded barns, surrounding woodlands, neon clubs, and grimy, abandoned buildings providing the perfect place for panic to set in for Alex, who channels her rage, oppugnant vocabulary, and basic training skills to overpower men of different sizes in spacious environments.
“Cotter is a relentlessly fierce presence…”
At times, the film is overly serious, while other times, it is fairly hammy. Either way, Burn It All wholly embraces its themes of body autonomy and familial redemption in a way that can be off-puttingly curt and awkward. When Alex is trapped in the barn with her armed captor, she says, “How could I misbehave when you have that totem of insecurity pointed at me?” At another point, Alex fervidly responds with, “You really gonna mansplain my dead mother to me right now?” While the dialogue is heavy-handed and strained, the actress’s taut delivery is absorbing, as are the well-choreographed action sequences that play out suddenly and convincingly.
While tonally unfixed and narratively bloated, Burn It All ignites discourse on bodily integrity and feminism within the framework of a straight-forward thriller and mostly succeeds. Admittedly, Hall’s screenplay is not the least bit subtle. With studied dialogue that dismantles the patriarchy and an action-driven storyline that is bereft of any surprises, the film could easily be construed as a formulaic, ultra-feminist action thriller and nothing more. But, everything from Elizabeth Cotter — her stern delivery to her skilled stunt work and piercing gaze — elevates the material.
"…wholly embraces its themes of body autonomy and familial redemption..."
