REVIEW: ‘Sacrifice’ Is More Mess Than Meaning

Satirical end-of-the-world films aren’t new territory for Netflix releases, and flicks about close-to-real-life billionaires who deserve to be dinner instead of served are well-trodden ground. And yet, Romain Gavras’s written-and-directed dark satire, Sacrifice, still thinks it’s doing something original. 

With a star-studded cast including Chris Evans, Anya Taylor-Joy, Vincent Cassel, Ambika Mod, Salma Hayek-Pinault, John Malkovich, and Charli XCX to name a few, Sacrifice is shooting for some sort of relevant message. Still, the star-packed credits make the film feel like you’re watching a joke that someone keeps telling the wrong way. Sure, it may work, but ultimately, it’s a mistake altogether. 

In the film, we follow Mike Tyler (Chris Evans) on the rebound from a bad and, unfortunately, public mental break. Trying to rebuild his image, the former action star is looking for something to stand for, so why not start with the climate?

Netflix’s Sacrifice is trying to use satire to highlight perspective, but it fails. 

Taking on his new pet project of saving the Earth, Mike stages his comeback at a star-studded environmental event in a decommissioned Greek mine, where it’s clear people have no reason to be there. Hosted by one of the world’s richest men and CEO, Ben Bracken (Vincent Cassel), the event straddles the line between being deluded into believing that this room full of celebrities are saving the world when in reality they’re supporting renewables that will be stripping the ocean of resources now that land is gone. 

The gala is something we see every time any celebrity needs to rehabilitate their image, or someone like Jeff Bezos needs a tax break. While Mike is loved by Ben Bracken’s wife Gloria (Salma Hayek), everyone else in the room either hates him or thinks he’s a joke. And they’re kind of right. 

After attempting to take himself and climate change seriously, Mike leads the most depressing display of social media attention-seeking. Is he wrong? No, but we know that he’s on stage yelling about the ills of mining the ocean for clout. And everyone in the room is wondering why he even showed up. 

This vapid display of wealth and networking changes when Charli XCX continues jump-scaring movie audiences in movies as a parody indigenous act (made up of ethnically ambiguous and definitely not Native people). But it isn’t her portrayal of Mother Nature in the musical joke that made me roll my eyes laughing and shift the mood of the gala. That honor goes to Joan (Anya Taylor-Joy) and the extremist cult that she leads. 

All bleach-blonde and holding assault rifles, Joan’s cult believes that an extinction-level event will take place in three days if three people are not sacrificed to a nearby volcano. One person represents power, one represents love, and one represents heroism. You can guess where Mike falls. 

The cult’s devout belief is driven more by their dedication to Joan’s prophecy and faith than by any real concern for the world around them. Sequestered away from everyone, the cult is just dumb, but that doesn’t stop Mike from falling for it.

Chris Evans and Any Taylor-Joy try to do a lot with a little. 

While the other hostages push back, Mike Tyler is a simple man. He just wants to be loved. So much so that jumping into a volcano seems like a good idea. Or at least using it as a PR stunt does. As Mike selfishly embraces the ride, Sacrifice morphs into a look at delusional belief. Still, the film doesn’t say much about the kind of blind faith it captures by the end. 

The longer that Sacrifice goes on, the more frustrating the film becomes. Sacrifice is the kind of muddled milquetoast critique that you’d expect from Hollywood. While the performances are full of eccentricities, they all feel dull beneath the surface. People yell and act incredibly loud while saying absolutely nothing.

While ultimately, the film’s actors are clearly enjoying and going all in on their roles, from Evans to Hayek alike, Sacrifice still feels dull. As each actor pushes the other to be bigger and more absurd, everything ends up feeling like excess for its own sake. 

The only real praise for the film should be for its set design and oppressive atmosphere. Sacrifice’s visual identity is its strongest element. It’s what keeps the film interesting even when the jokes don’t land. The film’s cinematography and presentation remain consistent even as perspective twists and characters like Joan and Mike become increasingly more exhausting and convoluted.

Sacrifice is a vapid mess trying desperately to force meaning but winding up hollow anyway. 

As much as Sacrifice begins with the climate, much like Mike Tyler, it doesn’t really care about that. Instead, the film is about being relevant, blind faith, and, well, that’s about it. With heaping amounts of cynicism that rarely pays off, the film hits neither on its exposure of hypocrisy the very actors in the cast are a part of, nor on its commentaries on devout activism that sees itself get increasingly deluded over time. 

Is Sacrifice a look at dual opinions on saving the world? Is the film about the hypocrisy of the wealthy class? Is it an Eat the Rich satire? Is it a climate change story? Is Sacrifice about the blind faith that drives us when we feel connected to someone or something? Or is it an absurdist look at belief that ultimately rings hollow from start to finish?

I think that the answer is somehow yes, no, and all of the above. The more is more approach to filmmaking falls flat here. Still, the bigger issue is that the muddled tones, perspectives, and narrative approach are an ugly mess. 

If Netflix hit the right notes with dark satire of today’s world with Don’t Look Up, Sacrifice is a cacophony of social media shorthand that ends up more interested in virtue signaling and less in the humiliation spotlight Mike Tyler is living in. Vapid and wholeheartedly driven by mess and melodrama, Sacrifice is just plain bad. Rather than a biting social satire, Sacrifice is simply just annoying. 

Sacrifice is streaming now, exclusively on Netflix.