The setup's fun, the payoff less, but it's amusing.

‘Atropia' feels like Gates gesturing vaguely at a few really interesting notions about the military-entertainment complex, and how it can bleed through into the people waging the actual war.

The cast, also featuring Tim Heidecker, Chloë Sevigny and Channing Tatum, is charismatic and at times piercingly funny.

An ambitious but uneven debut. While Shawkat and Turner provide genuine spark, Gates’ satire gets lost in its own desert. It captures the bizarre details of military simulations but fails to land its political punches, feeling hollow by the end.