'The Forever Purge'

It would be easy enough to dismiss the "Purge" franchise as just another hopped-up, ultraviolent vehicle for visceral mayhem, except for the naggingly accurate satire of its central thesis: Giving Americans -- a society obsessed with guns, drenched in violent imagery, and driven to tribal aggrievement, at least in part by a right-wing media that gains precious ratings points by continually fanning these flames -- a night to observe their darkest violent fantasies without legal repercussion is an inspired bit of hyperbole, cutting so close to the truth you can practically smell the aftershave.

That concept has kept the franchise moving through five installments now, since 2013, and it has proved to be a flexible enough to keep up with the changes in the political landscape. This episode, set in rural Texas, takes the idea of immigration -- and intolerance for foreigners coming to our country -- and turns it neatly on its head. This time, the Purge, reinstated by the "New Founding Fathers," once again in power, blasts past its allotted 12 hours, and instead, becomes "everafter," a call to all-out war by racist militias, hell-bent on "purifying" this country of anyone not lily white.

This is exceptionally bad news for Adela (Ana de la Reguera), and her husband, Juan (Tenoch Huerta), newly come to the U.S. via Mexico, after being driven off their land by a Cartel. Juan, a gifted cowboy with an excellent horse-wrangling sense, works in service to the ranch led by Caleb Tucker (Will Patton), the patriarch (and, perhaps, one of the very few socialist-leaning ranchers in Texas), whose hot-headed son, Dylan (Josh Lucas), very much does not share his father's more progressive views toward mixing the races.

When the Purge continues unabated after the normal curfew, Adela and Juan, Dylan, his pregnant wife Emma (Cassidy Freeman), his younger sister, Harper (Leven Rambin), and Juan's friend T.T. (Alejandro Edda), all have to go on the lam together in one of the ranch's giant truck rigs, hoping to make it down to the border, where Mexican government officials have offered a tight window of sanctuary for Americans fleeing the violent chaos of their homeland(!)

Yes, it's just that totally on-the-nose, and this film, directed by Everardo Gout, from a screenplay by the series' sturdy helmsman, James DeMonaco, like all the others before it, walks an exceedingly fraying tightrope, commenting on Americans' propensity and adoration for violence ... while producing a blood-soaked, gun-worshipping violent thriller that appeals exactly to that demographic. There are political lessons to be learned, of course -- not the least of which, race-separatist Dylan learns the benefits of people of races helping each other, (and all Juan and Adela had to do was repeatedly save his and his wife's life to get him there) -- and what certainly appears to be a timely critique of the Capitol rioters, who in their eagerness to inflict their anger on politicians created the best possible case against their cause, but amid all the gunfire and blood splattering, there isn't much time for more thoughtful political commentary ("America will be American again!" is one of the Purgers' helpful slogans).

Clumsy as it may be -- Gout has a way of inserting truly uninspired jump-scares into the action in a way that feels wholly unnecessary -- it's still smart enough to play with political conventions in a way that adds at least a small amount of heft to its otherwise bland payload. Making Juan and Adela the primary protagonists (they are both skilled with weapons, we are told, because of their battles with the Cartel) is a more inspired move, even as it keeps having to pump up Dylan's action bonafides in the process.

Subtlety is not in the cards for the franchise, ("That's American music!" declares a swastika-tattooed militia member, upon hearing the echoing cacophony of gunfire in the distance), but, perhaps, DeMonaco is onto something by appealing to a theater audience there for the anarchy and gunfire, and presenting a different viewpoint along with the headshots and arterial blood sprays. One imagines the films might at least countermand some of the worst of the racist rhetoric on right-wing news channels and the bowels of the internet. If so, it's a small price to pay for perspective.