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  (French trailer, NSFW for language) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOy5MSKt4QA (US trailer) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzPgN8eEI-c Queen of Earth is the latest film from Alex Ross Perry (Impolex, The Color Wheel, Listen Up Philip), who's become one of the most beloved directors working today in the indie field. This is a major departure for him, since his previous films have been more comedic in nature. Queen of Earth is a psychological drama/thriller that's more in line with Polanski or Bergman than the literary influences of his earlier works (like Pynchon and Roth). Catherine (Elisabeth Moss) goes through two major tragedies at once: her father, a respected artist in NYC, kills himself after a long battle with depression, and her long-term boyfriend (Kentucker Audley) breaks up with her. Catherine goes off to stay with her best friend Ginny (Catherine Waterston), who's staying at her parents' cottage. Catherine is clearly on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and her friendship with Ginny turns out to be pretty frayed (and that's putting it lightly). Flashbacks to Catherine's previous visit to the cottage a year earlier show how much the tables have turned for both women since then. As each day passes, and Catherine's mental state continues to deteriorate, the vacation verges on catastrophe, especially once Ginny's friend with benefits Rich (Patrick Fugit) keeps showing up and provoking Catherine. It's nice to see a film like Queen of Earth come along. It's been a long time (at least in my mind) since someone tried something like this. The French trailer plays up the intensity and madness of the film, but the US trailer plays it just right, as this is heavily inspired by 70s era filmmaking. It's not a sleazy film by any means, but it gives off the vibe of being the sort of tiny production that would have been played in drive-ins or tiny rundown theatres (the fact that they shot it on what looks like the grainiest 16mm stock available also helps). It's an interesting film about these two women, their kind of combative friendship, and the impact of what it's like to suddenly lose everything around you that you held dear (along with trying to get back what you feel entitled to). Is anyone else going to check this out? It's out in theatres and on VOD August 28th.
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Jul 25, 2015 19:52
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It looks disturbing, probably going to watch it.
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Jul 26, 2015 16:33
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Looks great, and I'm really glad that Elisabeth Moss is the person who is really breaking out post-Mad Men. I look forward to whatever she wins an Oscar for.
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Jul 26, 2015 16:43
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Stoked to see that there's a topic out for this. Just came out of watching this movie, and Elizabeth Moss and Alex Ross Perry were there for a Q&A afterwards. Man, it's my first time attending one of those, and it's pretty intense seeing the actress you just saw on screen in real life. Bit of a weird disconnect there to see someone acting so differently. Anyways, onto my thoughts - literally typing these as I think. First, Rich talk: Throughout the movie, I kept expecting a violent outburst, a big outpouring of madness at the end that manifests physically. I was so sure that that final moment was going to be when Rich comes into Catherine's room and provokes her (wasn't the only one, too - someone behind me loudly whispered 'Kill him!'). And I have no idea what happened next - was she trying to kill him? Either way, whatever it was, it didn't succeed, and I thought it was a pretty interesting choice to have Rich get away with things scot-free. Something else I thought was rather interesting was that, in the Q&A afterwards, Elizabeth Moss said that she thought that her long monologue near the end was the defining moment of strength for the character where she completely crushes Rich, but I didn't get that sort of impression. I thought that the long monologue was done in such a way that it would be easy for Rich to shrug it off - and in fact, the next time we see him, he's completely fine and is confident enough to walk into Catherine's room and provoke her more, not crushed at all. It wasn't even acknowledged, and the monologue had no effect on anything. I thought it showed moreso her spiraling deeper into an insanity-like-possession, becoming something other than herself. More detached, maybe - as in, things probably won't affect her as much emotionally, but she also won't affect the people around her much, if that makes any sense. Ties back into what she says early in the film about not feeling as though she's really there. On Ginny: I was a little disappointed because I felt like she was rendered as somewhat one-dimensional in relation to Catherine. We get bits and pieces, but never quite enough to paint her as much other than an enemy masquerading as a friend. It seems like most of the time, Ginny provokes Catherine for little reason, and while the flashbacks do provide some possible reasons as to why (James being there at the last cabin trip, Catherine's own behavior back then - but even then, it seemed like Ginny is provoking her). I realize that a part of the movie's theme is Catherine's persecution complex, alluded to when Ginny tells her that 'not everything is about [her]', but if that's the case then I feel like there wasn't enough objectivity to draw out Ginny's character. The movie seemed too far tilted in making the viewers side with Catherine, and thus making the actions of all other characters strangely hostile and incomprehensible - which I suppose fits the theme of Catherine spiraling into madness, so maybe the problem was that I expected something different coming into the film...something more evenly tilted, I guess. The cinematography was really interesting too - tons of close-up focuses on the two leads' faces, forcing us to pay attention to each microexpression. I remember, during one approximately nine-minute long take, just staring at the actresses' faces and trying to figure out what they're thinking and feeling. Both Ginny's face and Catherine's face were blank while the other pours out their deepest feelings to the other, and the camera focuses on the listener rather than the speaker. For Ginny, I pinned her as someone who ultimately doesn't really care that much about her friend's plight, especially since her expression shows no sympathy, other than maybe the occasional smile that soon fades into a blank, passive stare. Didn't help that soon afterwards she started talking about her own story without giving much input on Catherine's until the very end, after a long silence. On Catherine's end, because I had a more uncharitable view of Ginny probably, I interpreted her vacant stare as her tuning out of what Ginny was saying because it initially had no relevance to what she just told her. As time passed though, and as Catherine failed to give any sort of reaction to Ginny's story, I thought of it as moreso her drawing more and more into herself, spacing out and losing herself, which again ties in to what she was saying about feeling as though she wasn't really there. Yeah I dunno, I have a lot of vague disorganized thoughts about this movie right now. Akarshi fucked around with this message at 04:41 on Aug 28, 2015 |
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Aug 28, 2015 04:27
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Am I crazy or does Katherine Waterston look identical to a younger Holly Hunter?
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Sep 3, 2015 07:01
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