It is the night of the titular 25th anniversary dinner of couple Ellen and Paul Taylor (Diane Lane and Kyle Chandler). They’re talking about their writer son Josh (Dylan O’Brien) and his girlfriend Elizabeth Nettles (Phoebe Dynevor). Elizabeth, or Liz, happens to be Ellen’s ex-student. She kicked Liz out of the university because of politics. Liz’ centrist and radical (?) political views eventually get traction after Liz writes a book embraced by the government. Politically successful, Liz’ next step is targeting Ellen’s daughter Birdie (McKenna Grace), the youngest of four. Regardless of whether or not Liz’ manipulation works on Birdie, Ellen starts finding difficulties in protecting herself. Anniversary also shows Ellen being unable to protect her other children like Anna (Madeleine Brewer), a leftist comedian, and Cynthia (Zoey Deutch), who is useless.

Despite the flaws within Jan Komasa’s new film, I like that it has breathing room for smaller conversational scenes. Liz gets one of one conversations with Birdie and the other members of the family which make for curious reactions. Again, one of the minor conflicts here is how Liz destroys the Taylor family, and I can imagine some rooting for her. As a minor tangent, so after marrying Josh, she seems to keep her maiden name. Although, she can be Liz Taylor now. Jokes aside, the family treats her as her own political entity, picking off the family and the America they remember. One thing, though – by positing her as vaguely a centrist without explanation is Anniversary’s biggest flaw. The other characters are a bit half and half.

It’s understandable for Anniversary to be vague on its politics to please as many prospective film viewers as possible. The only catch is that it is harder to gauge Liz as a threat to the family or to an American political landscape. White people today are having a difficult time pushing an authoritarian regime and Liz is not that convincing. It feels like, then, that this film exists so the characters can crash out, one by one, as Liz threatens to brainwash an entire country. It’s also hard to fathom that Ellen is succumbing under Liz, someone who seems so transparently fake even for Washington. At least the majority of the film’s cast believe her shtick with the exception of some of Ellen’s family members.

Now that Ellen is unbelievably defenseless against Liz, Anniversary shows how she can protect her family from the government. In depicting this, though, the film keeps shifting in its perspective from Ellen to Birdie, also serving as our narrator. These perspective shifts aren’t confusing but I’d even tolerate a version of this where Ellen is telling her story instead of Birdie. And speaking of Ellen, she and the Taylors don’t necessarily have to suffer under Liz and the new United States. Birdie’s narration talks about an exodus of American academics and intellectuals, and Ellen is a member of that. Of course there are reasons why Ellen may prefer to stay, which, I don’t need spoon feeding but I need reasons.

Anniversary is available to watch in Cineplex theatres.