Post by pacinoyes on Aug 4, 2022 19:37:11 GMT
This is in theaters near me tonight - so copying over my great performances post for its own thread.......very fine performance, mostly decent film especially in the August Death Valley of Cinema atm....... think it may have some fans on MAR. Also suggests a 1970s kind of movie which is always welcome:
A great-ish performance of a complex character in a not particularly great movie - Aubrey Plaza is at her rangiest here - using almost none of her slacker charms of what you've loved about her so far ..........and playing a part almost missing in indie dreck these days: the defined female role without knowing wink to an audience already built in.
The movie itself is a trite examination of capitalism (surprise, it's against it!) but Plaza as the embodiment of those fncked out and fncked over by capitalism - and its tributaries - prison system, massive debt, low wages is kind of riveting. Like this year's - better (imo) - Watcher - this is a film where the actress must fill out the part against genre tropes and transcend them.
At one time this role would have been played by a male - here, Plaza expressly acts like a male herself - aware of her limitations physically - she's in danger, often and right at the start - but also her appeal physically to men by being a woman (financially, sexually), but mostly aware of her intellect and how others will misunderstand or underestimate it.
Her character makes the plot twists - in the 3rd act sort of BS - but her embodiment of that character makes it seem "movie possible". She suggests - more than suggests actually - a kind of mania by repetition - how many injustices inflicted upon her create a steely resolve we only see as the plot goes along - and it's not a "healthy" one either.
Fine work and it's the performance that justifies the movie existing anyway (again, like Watcher) - it's the singer not song - here it's the character not the film so much.