You may or may not remember Hailey Gate’s small acting role in 2024’s Challengers, but regardless, her ambitions in filmmaking and conversations on set with Luca Guadagnino led to the inception of her first feature film. Spawned from her interest in the bizarre training methods of the US military, she has crafted her first narrative feature centered on a role-playing facility named “Atropia”. The concept is right there for a biting satire on past and modern politics, but it just happens to lack much bite whatsoever.

Military satires have often failed to really stick since the Iraq War, whether it’s The Men Who Stare At Goats or Whiskey Tango Foxtrot or War Machine. For whatever reason, out of the hundreds of post-9/11 war films, only a handful seem to have had the magic sauce. For every 20 Act of Valors, there is a The Hurt Locker. For every Southland Tales (there is really only one Southland Tales), there is an In the Loop. Atropia falls somewhere in the foggy middle ground where it’s able to churn up some really clever gags, but the capital-P point of the story never seems to linger. It always seems on the cusp of saying something poignant, often having characters address “do you really know what we’re actually doing in Iraq?” But that’s the extent of it. Characters that resemble modern military archetypes in charge of the program, played by the underused and underutilized Tim Heidecker and Chloe Sevigny, only show up in spurts and are more simply stand-ins for ignorant, emotionless authority leaders.

At the center of Atropia is an actress cast as an Iraqi local, for instance having to substitute as a yellow mustard gas terrorist, Fayruz, played by Alia Shawkat. She is a struggling actor, desperate for any role, who even keeps a collection of her audition tapes on burnable DVDs. During one particular session with an incoming army troop arriving to experience a period of simulated training exercises, Fayruz falls in love with a former-soldier-turned-role-player going under the character alias Abu Dice (Callum Turner, another role where the obviously-British actor is playing American only with an East-coast accent). At first their interactions are contentious, sparring back and forth with competitive attitudes on how the scenes should be played, but low and behold, love ensues. She is into his bluntness, he is into her lack of judgment, including him having past traumas where he can only get aroused around fecal smells and her having a fetish of being bathed. They are two weirdos perfect for each other, which leads to some solid comedic beats, perfectly framed and executed by Gates, though nothing that exceeds a chuckle.

The film’s biggest laughs are due to an incredible celebrity cameo, an actor playing themselves arriving on the base to perform the LARPing exercise as a way of training for a role. This actor is perfectly employed to deliver the larger laughs the film strives for its entire runtime, but exits the film early, leaving the rest of the runtime to slowly run out of gas by its end. Its this cameo that peers into a version of the movie we could have had, a running gag of ridiculousness that explores our lack of clarity with the sacrifices of our brave soldiers overseas.

It is nice to see Shawkat take command with a lead role, and her comedic presence often keeps even the most stumbling beats afloat. But the film around her never seems up for the challenge, often leaving her adrift at sea to make scenes work. After a while, its absurdity begins to lack laughs and lack heart. By the time the credits roll, there does seem to be something missing from what is such a unique pitch.

If anything, it does serve as great awareness of its subject matter, and the arrival of a promising talent in Hailey Gates, but one wishes a bit more thought were put into the intentions of this script. It never forgets how flawed its characters are, but even more flawed is their surroundings, which the film treats more as a shrugging matter of fact. It never feels like it has the conviction to ask the tougher questions about our country’s military system. It lacks stamina, and what is a good satire if it has no stamina?