Sara (played by Marling) is a former FBI agent who has been researching for an undercover job with a private security firm for the best part of a year. It entails going undercover with an anarchist organisation called The East, who have pledged to enact vengeance on the CEOs of corporations that have damaged the environment. Sara ultimately gets the job because she is seen as “unexpected”. Over the course of her previous two films, Marling has shown a knack for slowly building upon a solid, central idea, before rallying with an unexpected and thought-provoking ending. The East is in similar territory to Sound Of My Voice, which followed a pair of journalists as they infiltrated a cult based around Marling’s messiah figure. There’s an aspect of cult about The East, (presumably named as the antithesis to the capitalist west) but it’s only really conferred upon them by what Clarkson’s buttoned-up security chief tells Sara, and the audience. “If you spent day-in and day-out with a pack of white supremacists, you’d develop feelings for them too,” she tells her protégé. The character who is most effectively planted between the extreme viewpoint and the compassionate side of things is Doc. Kebbell’s performance towers over all others in the film by its sheer understatement, with the repressed anger and bitterness of his character’s back story bubbling up but never spilling over. His is by far the most fleshed-out character of the bunch, and he commands the screen every time he appears. However, while Marling may be a very interesting screenwriter, it remains that she’s not the best leading lady around. What worked for her detached and guilt-stricken ex-con in Another Earth, or for her airy-fairy future-dweller in Sound Of My Voice, works far less well for an undercover agent. But if The East’s greatest strength is in its writing, then it’s in the slow-burn pace of the script. Few will sympathise with the phamaceutical company bigwigs in the film, and with the spy thriller elements dialled down, you really have time to reflect upon what you’re seeing, and feel your way through as Sara does. In the process, you’re left on tenterhooks as to which side she will eventually choose, and therein lies the real tension. And even after almost two hours, the ending, while not as ambiguous or shocking as those of Marling’s previous two films, remains refreshingly unexpected. The East is out in UK cinemas now. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.