Critics reviews

Hawke's transformation is both upsetting and scary (you're not sure what this terminally repressed man is capable of doing), though it doesn't overshadow the larger horror of soldiers killing people from several thousand miles away. This is less visually inventive than Niccol's other features, but the bold, confrontational tone commands one's attention, and the cast–which also includes Bruce Greenwood and Zoe Kravitz—is superb.

Written and directed by "Gattaca" filmmaker and "The Truman Show" screenwriter Andrew Niccol, "Good Kill" is an intelligent but not terribly effective drama. And its discussion of military ethics, especially with regard to what it means to be able to kill people without physical consequences, is promising, but it does not go far enough.

The question becomes: Would an intervention on the woman's behalf become salvation for those who carry out the assigned actions? (The parallel between violations of an unprotected woman and an undeveloped country is hardly subtle.) If one of the group believes that it does, is the risk of punishment or demotion worth soothing a troubled conscience? The dilemma is at the heart of Andrew Niccol's potent film, and might just offer Major Thomas Egan (Ethan Hawke) a path to redemption.

As Egan's commanding officer, Bruce Greenwood, a fine character actor, is saddled with salty, cliché-ridden exposition meant to drive home drone operators' indispensability for killing terrorists before they kill Americans. Actual operators are undoubtedly torn, but likely don't debate ethics as deeply or piquantly as they do here. The women are essentially props. Still, Good Kill's workmanlike quality affords it demonstrative credibility.

This up-to-the-minute scenario is constrained by the ploddingly routine domestic dramas of Hawke's character. He's a burned-out Top Gun cliché, but that's no excuse for screenplay commonplaces or the vaguely Sorkin-esque preachiness of the dialogue, especially in the speeches of his commanding officer (Bruce Greenwood). Niccol's eerily calm film is as flat as the desert that surrounds the base, but that's not unintentional, and the quiet lets you hear cultural echoes

Because it so clearly explains the moral issues of drones, it's valuable, a film that could change debate if seen widely. That's enough to offset its weaker elements, like the way Niccol frequently cuts to single, significant tears running down faces, or the too-familiar material with the impact Hawke's PTSD has on his family. The over-simplification of those issues stands out all the more for the complexity of the heart of the story.

Niccol is a mediocre dramatist, but a shrewdly minimal stylist; his sleek, streamlined images complement his blunt, occasionally caustic dialogue (a police officer says, "How's the war on terror going?"—to which Thomas responds, "About as well as your war on drugs"), achieving an alienating effect that serves to emotionally express the disconnection felt by soldiers who've become little more than the sort of middle-class cubicle jockeys that they used to hold in contempt.

As a writer and director, Niccol has always been interested in the alienating power of tech, but he also understands drama: Even as the film directly tackles the philosophical and mental ramifications of war fought by remote, it also delivers scenes of heart-stopping tension, as Hawke and his crew sit behind screens trying to decide who lives and who dies.

The thinking person's answer to American Sniper... This smart and piercing film raises questions about how technology can further dehumanize soldiers, why following orders can still make one criminally complicit, and — much like in Gattaca or Niccol's The Truman Show — how life in the modern age can be claustrophobically inauthentic.

Good Kill works due to its simple depiction of a deadly simple form of technology. It's to the point where you're forced to question whether Egan is there because of his flinty moral detachment or whether, per a potty-mouthed commanding officer played by Bruce Greenwood, he really is the best in the business. This "best" may not relate to actual skills, and more to do with an unquestioning willingness to pull the trigger when asked.

The picture is quiet, tense and thoughtful. That's not uncharacteristic for Niccol, who has a knack for teasing out complex sociopolitical threads in even his science-fiction films (Gattaca, In Time) without turning them into stupidly didactic civics lessons. But Good Kill is something else again, a picture rooted in the here and now. It's set in 2010, but in 2014 the moral issues it raises have grown more crucial rather than less.

At once forward-thinking and exhilaratingly of the moment... Just as Niccol's narrative structure is at once fraught and immaculate in its escalation of ideas and character friction, so his arguments remain ever-so-slightly oblique despite the tidiness of their presentation: How much viewers wish to accept the pic as a single, tragic character study or a broader cautionary tale is up to them.