After appearing in a staggering five movies in 2016 (including The Accountant, a certified masterpiece), Anna Kendrick has picked her roles more carefully. In 2017, Pitch Perfect 3; in 2018, A Simple Favor, which should have done better at the box office; and this year, there’s Disney+’s Noelle, where she plays Santa’s daughter, and The Day Shall Come, from the director of 2010’s very funny Four Lions. In the pitch-black satire, Kendrick plays an FBI agent trying to entrap a street preacher funded by a Middle Eastern terrorist organization. Except said organization is actually the U.S. government, and “it’s all part of an elaborate scheme to entrap Moses and make his arrest the latest national security win,” according to IFC Films. It’s a high concept comedy, hopefully with a third-act cameo from Ben Affleck to help save the day / country / world.
Here’s the official plot summary:
Before you can win the war on terror you need a terrorist — even if you have to invent one yourself. Moses Al Shabaz (Marchánt Davis) is a small-time Miami street preacher whose far-fetched revolutionary ideas find unexpected legitimacy when a Middle Eastern terrorist organization offers to help fund his dream of overthrowing the US government. The problem? His backer is the U.S. government and it’s all part of an elaborate scheme to entrap Moses and make his arrest the latest national security win. But when Moses doesn’t take the bait, FBI agent Kendra Glack (Anna Kendrick) must resort to increasingly outlandish — and risky — lengths to get her man. Crackling with fast-and-furious one-liners, the new film from button-pushing comedic renegade Chris Morris (Four Lions) is an audacious, bitingly hilarious takedown of our political theater of the absurd.
The Day Shall Come opens in select theaters and on VOD on September 27.
