Venice 2025: Kathryn Bigelow’s ‘A House of Dynamite’ is Staggering

Whoa. Kathryn Bigelow just made a surprise sequel to Oppenheimer. This is one of the most intensely thrilling movies of the year. Goodness gracious. My palms are still sweaty writing about it now hours after the screening. A House of Dynamite, which should’ve kept the original title as stated in the dialogue, A House Filled with Dynamite, is the first feature film made by Kathryn Bigelow since making Detroit in 2017. She’s back with a fury, with a vengeance, with a story that is going to stir things up and get people talking. But of course – that’s the point. The whole movie is designed to get people to start discussing, well, everything about the state of the world right now. It’s not really a sequel to Oppenheimer but it actually kind of fits because it’s the most vivid continuation of the second half of that masterpiece movie. Nuclear fears are back and more powerful than ever in the real world. And this movie wonders: what would we do in only 20 minutes if there was a single nuclear missile fired towards a major American city? How would the US respond? What would happen? Would the President “push the button” and retaliate with more nukes? It doesn’t actually give any answers but it does get us thinking about the actual answers to all these questions. // Continue Reading ›