This movie is a period piece, centering around a sleepy little town and their reactions to Orson Welles historic "War of the Worlds" broadcast -- as the story goes, this broadcast was interpreted by some as a real attack from outer space. And so, the movie has its premise, as this farming community is thrown in to chaos on Halloween night, believing they are about to be invaded by martians.
"Brave New Jersey" is cartoonish in its depiction of 1938 rural America. These don't feel like people, and they don't even feel like characters. The interpretations are modern enough, but most of them feel like they're templates being pulled from a book of "small town" archetypes.
A preacher experiencing a lapse in faith. A burned out war hero trying to recapture former glory. An overweight, inept sheriff. A soft spoken protagonist who can't find the words when it comes to the woman he loves. She herself is trapped in a marriage with a man that clearly doesn't care about her as anything other than a trophy. And so on. These people were given one note to play, and they play it loud and hard. You know what's going to happen to them the moment they finish their first sentence.
Though the movie is billed as something of a comedy, this simple characterization isn't the joke. The joke is, "isn't it silly people really believed this was happening to them?" There's a real story here, these people truly believe they're about to die, and it has a message behind that idea, but it feels really cutesy and trite. The drama feels cut short by the silly vibe, and the silly vibe doesn't really land because it's still trying to have legitimate drama. At times, when the two halves clash the hardest, it can be legitimately difficult to watch. It's oil and water.
Between those moments, the movie just feels kind of dopey, and saccharine, and occasionally even a little anachronistic. Nobody acts like this, and nobody ever acted like this. Any of the good vibes this movie tries to trade in are completely lost on me because it can't decide what it really wants.
Cannot recommend.
