Posts Tagged ‘Ottessa Moshfegh’

EILEEN: 3 STARS. “more about what’s left unsaid, than the obvious story points.”

In “Eileen,” a 1960s-set, Hitchcockian psychological thriller starring Thomasin McKenzie and Anne Hathaway, a lonely woman’s life takes a sinister turn when she meets a glamorous new co-worker.

Mckenzie is the title character, a lonely and unhappy twenty-something secretary at a small-town Massachusetts juvenile detention centre. She lives with her ex-cop father (Shea Whigham), a widower with a nasty drinking problem and a personality to match. “Get a life, Eileen,” he says to her. “Get a clue.”

To pass the days she daydreams of having relations with her co-workers and, at night, is a voyeur, spying on couples making out in their cars at Look Out Point.

She is invisible at home and at work; a blank slate. “Some people, they’re the real people,” Eileen’s dad says. “Like in a movie. They’re the ones you watch, they’re the ones making moves. And other people, they’re just there, filling the space. That’s you, Eileen. You’re one of them.”

A ray of light in the form of Dr. Rebecca St. John (Anne Hathaway) illuminates the dark corners of Eileen life. Stylish and vivacious, the detention centre’s new counsellor is everything Eileen isn’t. A glamorous vision, squeezed into a red dress, topped with a burst of blonde hair, Rebecca drinks and smokes— “It’s a nasty habit,” she says, sparking up a fresh Pall Mall, “that’s why I like it.”—and her arrival inspires Eileen to examine her own wants and desires.

As Rebecca takes an interest in Sam Polk (Lee Nivola), a young inmate convicted of a gruesome crime, revealing a dark secret, Eileen shows there is more to her than meets the eye.

Based on the 2015 novel by Ottessa Moshfegh, “Eileen” begins as a character study, a slice-of-life look at a floundering woman, becomes a multi-pronged psychological thriller in its final third. The film takes an audacious turn, one that changes the film’s power dynamic, and closes things off with a bang (and a tremendous performance from Marin Ireland as Rita Polk, but no spoilers here).

Until then, it is a slow burn, a film that luxuriates in its characters. Mckenzie balances the character’s bored exterior with her bombastic inner life, creating Eileen, a ticking time bomb of emotion, careening toward a life defining moment (no spoilers here). It’s finely tuned work that cuts through the film’s dark ennui.

Hathaway has the showier role as Hitchcockian icy blonde Rebecca. Intelligent, enticing and ultimately empathic, she stands in stark contrast to the movie’s deliberately dull backdrop. Rebecca is a polar opposite to Eileen, the catalyst that gives the movie its spark.

“Eileen” is more about what’s left unsaid, than it is about the obvious story points (keeping it vague and spoiler free here). The suggestion of a budding relationship as a hand brushes against a knee, a shared slow dance in a bar and stolen looks, is ultimately more suspenseful than the pulpy twist at the film’s end. The end, while impactful, is more conventional than we might have expected from this moody period piece.

CAUSEWAY: 3 ½ STARS. “beautifully performed, low-key character study.”

In the low-key drama “Causeway,” now streaming on Apple TV+, Jennifer Lawrence once again shows why she is one of her generation’s best actors. She delivers a performance driven by subtlety, without a hint of affectation.

Lawrence plays Lynsey, a young woman, born into poverty, who used the military to get away from a negligent mother (Linda Emond) and junkie brother (Russell Harvard). “Don’t turn into your Aunt Lesley. Or anyone from your father’s family. Or mine,” says her mom.

While serving in Afghanistan with the Army Core of Engineers she is badly injured in an IED blast.

Now, back at home, living in her New Orleans childhood home with her negligent mother, her road to recovery is paved with difficulty. She suffered a brain injury, is prone to anxiety attacks, and the daily rituals of her past life, like brushing her teeth, remain just out of reach.

She longs to get back to the army to escape the memories of the trauma of growing up as a bright young woman in a home marred by substance abuse. “I just have to get out of here,” she says. But before she can be redeployed, she takes a job cleaning pools. “It’s just temporary until I can go back,” she says.

The job brings her in contact with a lonely but kindhearted auto mechanic names James (the brilliant Brian Tyree Henry), who becomes the person who grounds her, while coping with his own demons.

“Causeway” is a movie about the healing power of friendship and choosing, as Armistead Maupin said, your logical, not biological family.

Director Lila Neugebauer, working on a heartfelt script by Luke Goebel, Ottessa Moshfegh and Elizabeth Sanders, has crafted a movie that defies the usual “coming home” drama in favor of a quiet, slice-of-life story that is actually a character study of broken people who find comfort in the company of one another.

Lynsey and James have a lovely, unspoken way of communicating. There’s no (well, very little) sexual tension, just deep affection and positive pal vibes. This is a story of broken people who form a platonic friendship because they enjoy one another’s company. They are open and raw with one another, because they understand the other’s pain and the link between trauma and depression.

“Causeway” is not so plot driven. It’s a slice of life; a beautifully performed, low-key character study of people coping with past trauma who find comfort in one another’s company.