A young woman seeks revenge against anyone who was involved in a tragic event several years ago.
I’m in two minds about this. I believe that’s because I was hyped up for weeks before watching it, even though I hadn’t even watched the trailer.
I’ll start with the good news: Carrey Mulligan is amazing, Bo Burnham is funny, and Clancy Brown is heartbreaking. And, for me, this is where the good news stops.
First and foremost, the film lacks structure. Its pace and rhythm is all over the place. Secondly, it resembles a thriller with music video montages in between. Is that wrong? Not on its own. It becomes wrong and, if not wrong, confusing for such a delicate issue that ultimately takes the back seat. This wrongness/confusion causes indecisiveness, and no film should be undecided about situations that have scarred women’s but also families’ lives. Occasionally, it felt like a dark comedy accompanied by millennial pop music that was not befitting, so I kept asking myself, how am I supposed to feel? And then, about who? About Nina or Cassie? Does Cassie’s behaviour justify what happened to Nina? Was it that that made her sociopath, or did that event trigger it? How was she punishing the ones who were crossing her path? How was the level of punishment against the ones who were accessories to what happened to Nina decided? There are so many questions regarding the character’s arc and the hero’s journey, but I’ll raise one last one: How is one meant to feel about Cassie and her actions in the end?
The film is rated ‘suitable only for 15 years and older’, but I can’t shake off the feeling that is for 15 y/o ones alone. That excludes the two-and-a-half-minute shocking scene in the cabin (no spoilers). Writer/director Emerald Fennell, Carrey Mulligan, and Margot Robbie are wearing the producer’s hat, and their effort is rewarded with 4 Golden Globes nominations, another 62 wins and 132 more nominations. I congratulate them and the rest of the cast and crew for their achievement, even though it was not my cup of tea.
Nothing that affects someone that much should be that stylised. Even though I found Revenge (2017) quite ‘stylish’ until the inciting incident in the second act, its brutality defined the film and established for the viewer that ‘shock’ was what it aimed for. But cinema, like life itself, is not just black or white. There are numerous shades of grey, and one of my favourite genre mixes, horror/comedy, falls under that category. Keeping that in mind, I’m constantly asking myself, how much comedy does one mix with horror? Or is it the other way around?
P.S. Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020). That’s the kind of realistic cinema I find more intriguing.
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