Movies about cults are not new.
There are plenty of films that examine the recruitment, impact, and prevalence of cults, such as The Master or the Waco mini series. Jonestown has seen a number of movies and TV show adaptations, such as Guyana Crime of the Century, The Sacrament, The A-Team episode “Children of Jamestown,” and two upcoming films starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Joseph Gordon-Levitt respectively. As Heaven’s Gate hasn’t been as prevalently adapted as Jonestown, the lack of exposure gives director Michael Gallagher an opportunity to provide a fresh and interesting take on the Heaven’s Gate cult with his latest feature The Leader. Unfortunately, while the film boasts strong talent in front of the camera, the story itself leaves much to be desired.
The Leader chronicles the creation of the Heaven’s Gate cult through the lens of its founders, Marshall Applewhite (Tim Blake Nelson) and Bonnie Nettles (Vera Farmiga), leading up to the mass suicide in 1997. The film’s strength predominantly lies in its performances, as both Nelson and Farmiga deliver intense, nuanced, multilayered performances. They have strong chemistry with each other, matching their mutual feelings of isolation and disconnect with the world around them. The supporting cast who all play members of the Heavens Gate Cult: Simon Rex, Grace Caroline Currey, and a chilling Jim Parsons, delivered strong performances as well. Jim Parson in particular delivered a haunting and compelling performance, multi-layered in his pain, desperation, and loneliness. Additionally, the film is at its strongest when it examines Bonnie Nettles’ guilt from abandoning her family. Gallagher successfully ties Nettles’ possessiveness of the cult to her own projection for leaving her family. Sadly, that through-line is the most “examination” in the film.
A massive problem with The Leader is that it moves through the development of the Heaven’s Gate cult too quickly. It starts off with just Marshall and Bonnie to suddenly having dozens of blindly devoted members without gradual escalation or brainwashing. Even as we learn the beliefs behind the cult, we learn next to nothing about how or why most of the members would even find their belief system appealing. At the same time, the mood throughout the film is overtly menacing, which removes any subtlety that may hint at how these members get attracted to the cult in the first place. Instead of genuine examination of the cult, we’re left bluntly moving from scene-to-scene to get to the climactic ending. This film needed a delicate directorial hand and Gallagher just didn’t have that hand.
The Leader, while not a terrible film, doesn’t live up to its potential. There are moments that flirt with intrigue and even the final mass suicide was chillingly shot. However, the bland direction and blunt mood hold back any real chills or intrigue that could come out of the film. Its admirable performances are unfortunately not enough to elevate a pretty generic film.
