Movies
[Fantastic Fest Review] ‘The Perfection’ Delivers Twisted, Shocking and Hilarious Perfection
Every year at Fantastic Fest, there is one film that flies under the radar and completely takes you by surprise. Richard Shepard‘s (The Matador, Dom Hemingway) The Perfectionis that film this year. Added to the roster just days before the festival began, the film is a demented and uncomfortable tale of obsession and revenge that pulls the rug out from under you at least three times over the course of its 90 minutes before settling on a final image that is as disturbing as it is hilarious. The Perfection is as close to perfect as a film can get and shouldn’t be missed once it secures a distributor (though it is doubtful it will get a wide release, at it is a truly fucked up little film). I wanted to wait a few days to write this review so I could be sure I wasn’t being hyperbolic in my praise for it. Well, it’s been two days and I’m still in love with it, so make of that what you will.
10 years after abandoning her life as a cello prodigy to care for her ailing mother, Charlotte (Allison Williams, Girls, Get Out) seeks out her mentor Anton (Steven Weber) and his new star pupil Lizzie (Logan Browning, Dear White People) in order to witness the life she gave up. Once there, a twisted (and I mean twisted) plan is set in motion that will push all parties involved to their absolute limits.
That is really all you need to know about ThePerfection, which is being billed as “Black Swan with a cello player,” but that is a simplified version of this complex film. Similar to other twisty horror films like Martyrs, The Perfection features a plot that changes direction multiple times throughout its runtime. The marketing team is going to have a helluva time promoting it without giving away major plot points. I’m loathed to even write a lengthy review about it for fear of giving too much away, but I’ll do my best. Word to the wise? Go into The Perfection blind. Don’t watch any trailers and don’t read any reviews (feel free to bookmark this one and come back later, though). Just know I’m giving it a 5/5 and it’s my favorite film I’ve seen at the festival (so far).
Both Williams and Browning are stupendous here. Browning, so talented in Netflix’s Dear White People, imbues Lizzie with a magnetic combination of innocence and rebelliousness before her life gets turned upside down. She makes the perfect foil for Williams, who is the MVP here. Her Charlotte is such a complex character that simply labeling her the villain of the film would be a disservice. Williams is making use of her association with the privileged rich girl persona she channeled in girls by choosing very layered and devious characters. If her goal is to not be typecast as a “Marnie,” then roles like Get Out‘s Rose and The Perfection‘s Charlotte will most definitely aid her in doing so. Though Rose was still a privileged rich girl, she was able to convey a sense of menace, but it was only really touched upon in a few scenes of that film. The Perfection really allows her to go off the rails. It’s a fascinating performance and incredibly compelling. Weber is equally strong in his role as the girls’ mentor, but to say much more about his performance would go into spoiler territory.
Shepard has had some experience dealing with dark comedies, but nothing quite as insane as this. Working with a script that he co-wrote with Eric C. Charmelo and Nicole Snyder (both of whom created the vastly underrated Sarah Michelle Gellar series Ringer), Shepard casually borrows visual elements from a multitude of other film classics. He has a lot of fun with the visuals as well (sans for one scene of shoddy CGI bugs). The film is divided into four chapters, and it would be easy to assume that you were watching an anthology film if they didn’t all share the same characters and narrative. Each chapter has its own distinct tone and feel, making for a somewhat jarring (in a good way) viewing experience. If there was ever a film to keep you on your toes, The Perfection is it.
The Perfection consistently shocks and surprises and takes so many twists and turns you don’t expect that you’re bound to get whiplash. It is a fabulously twisted film that can’t easily fit into one genre. It’s all at once a horror film, a comedy, a revenge thriller, a character study, a trashy grindhouse flick and so much more. It calls to mind films like Heathers, Martyrs, Audition and Oldboy, but still manages to maintain its own identity. The demented subject matter will likely turn off some viewers, but if you can stomach it, don’t miss The Perfection. It is the embodiment of its namesake.
The Perfection had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest.
There’s been a lot of talk about how Christopher Nolan snuck in some horror elements into his epic adaptation of The Odyssey. However, even before the Cyclops began to eat Ithican soldiers and Circe subjected them to magical body-horror, cinemagoers were already witnessing supernatural terror through a certain trailer that was attached to most IMAX screenings of Nolan’s film.
It turns out that this trailer was for Rob Savage’s Other Mommy, an adaptation of Bird Box author Josh Malerman’s horror novel, Incidents Around the House. With the teaser now available online and revealing that the award-winning Jessica Chastain is playing the titular antagonist (as well as her ill-fated human counterpart), not to mention the fact that the picture is being helmed by the director of hits like Host and The Boogeyman, genre fans are understandably hyped for this upcoming thriller.
That’s why I’ve decided to take a closer look at the trailer and share four things we learned from this sneak peek at Other Mommy!
4. Rob Savage is Going Back to His Supernatural Horror Roots
I know I’m in the minority when I admit that Dashcam is my favorite Rob Savage movie, but even I understand why the filmmakers’ fans have been waiting a while for the director to get back to telling more grounded paranormal stories as he did with 2020’s Host.
Other Mommy obviously isn’t a found footage movie, but moments like the poltergeist activity on the kitchen table combined with the nature of the source material, which actually features a full-on exorcism, indicate that this adaptation is more than a simple creature feature. That’s why I think Savage is once again going to borrow from the same ghostly narratives that made his debut film such a viral hit.
3. Other Mommy is a More Convincing Doppelganger in the Adaptation
Part of the horror from Malerman’s original novel came from the fact that the entity taking on the form of Bela’s (Arabella Olivia Clark) mother wasn’t very good at passing itself off as human. This resulted in several uncanny moments where other characters began to notice that there was something visibly wrong with the family and decided to keep their distance.
Savage’s film appears to be taking a different route, with the trailer showing a version of the entity that can, at least physically, imitate Chastain’s character perfectly. This change is likely the result of the filmmakers wanting to incorporate more paranoid scenes where Bela and her father, played by Jay Duplass, are confused about which Mommy is safe to interact with.
2. The Family is Also Better Off This Time Around
Incidents Around the House featured some interesting subtext about how poverty can negatively affect American family dynamics. After all, the main characters were already feeling scared and isolated before the entity emerged from Bela’s closet and began scratching at their emotional wounds. The trailer for the movie, however, depicts the family as being relatively well off before these incidents begin to occur.
I can only imagine that this part of the story was changed so that the family’s fall from grace can be even more dramatic as the mom and dad’s pasts are revealed and Bela falls further into the clutches of the demonic antagonist.
1. Jessica Chastain is Embodying Evil Dead Rise’s Alyssa Sutherland
Mothers turning against their children is one of the most disturbing horror tropes out there (just check out classics like Hereditary and Carrie if you need proof), but it takes a remarkably skilled actress to pull off such a monstrous transformation. This is especially true when both a regular, loving mother and the Other share the screen in the same film.
That’s why I appreciate how Chastain appears to be channeling another evil redhead mother that recently traumatized audiences with her performance. It’s too early to be sure, but I’m fairly confident that Chastain’s character has at least some amount of Ellie in her cinematic DNA – Ellie being the iconic deadite brought to life by Australian actress Alyssa Sutherland in 2023’s Evil Dead Rise.
Let us know in the comments if you think we missed any important details from the trailer, and don’t forget to check out Other Mommy when it hits theaters on October 9!
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