Camp X-Ray

Camp X-Ray is currently streaming in Australia on Amazon Prime Video, and in the US on Netflix and Philo, and it rewards the patience it asks of you. It says what it needs to say in one sitting, no filler. With 1,111 viewer ratings on TMDB, this is not a title flying under the radar. Kristen Stewart sets the tone, and the rest of the cast matches it scene for scene. There is no real reason to keep putting it off — it is right there on Amazon Prime Video.

Part of the current wave of titles people are actually watching, Camp X-Ray earns its spot. Camp X-Ray takes its time building the world its characters inhabit, and the patience pays off. A young woman joins the military to be part of something bigger than herself and her small-town roots. Instead, she ends up as a new guard at Guantanamo Bay, where her mission is far from black and white. Surrounded by hostile jihadists and aggressive squadmates, she strikes up an unusual friendship with one of the detainees. Kristen Stewart and Payman Maadi lead a cast that treats the material with real seriousness. It was released in 2014. What elevates Camp X-Ray is a refusal to let any character off the hook too easily. It knows exactly what it is, and does not try to be anything else.

For anyone looking for storytelling that takes its characters seriously, Camp X-Ray delivers. It rewards viewers regardless of what else is in their watch history. It is a manageable watch, easy to fit into a single evening. Kristen Stewart's work here is the kind that gets referenced in career retrospectives. It makes everything else feel thin by comparison.