Review of How I Live Now (2013) by Thomas — 12 Mar 2015

In many ways the film that I suspect that "Red Dawn" (both the 80s and 2000s versions) perhaps tried to be, in some early version of the script process, before it all became about patriotism and gun slinging.

Instead, in How I Live Now, we follow Daisy, surly American teenager sent to live in the English country side (and falls in love with a local boy), just as World War III breaks out. But, in an interesting turn of events, she and her friends do not become bad ass resistance fighters.

Rather, they are frightened children, caught in a war they do not understand, simply trying to survive and make it back home. Believable plot, strong acting, and beautiful use of the lustrous English countryside make for a good film.