So Alice begins to go down the rabbit hole...
From one of the writers of the brilliant "Booksmart", the pieces of Wilde's directorial sophomore effort seem familiar on the surface, and you're waiting for how they come together, how they click, what they do with them. There are hints of "Stepford Wives", "Get Out", "The Truman Show", "Antebellum" and more (spoilers maybe...) all bubbling under the surface as we try and figure out how the inevitable twist will come into play.
So in the interim we have to focus on the performance of Pugh, which is good, and the supporting characters around her, who are also good (Nick Kroll is in this for some reason.). Harry Styles is an odd choice of casting (especially with the extended, "Annette"-style cunnilingus scenes) and is stilted and off, but later on when he puts on a different accent that is not his own he's actually a better actor. So it has to be intentional, and it works for the part. There's a scene in a car where he's pretty good.
Others float in and out of the movie, though it's mostly Pugh's performance, notably a criminally underused Gemma Chan (dressed as a school teacher and wielding a stick if that's your thing) as Shelley, the real queen bee and power behind the throne due to her husband, and Olivia Wilde herself as the alcoholic neighbour and mother of two, something of a climber and gossip in the social circle.
Chris Pine plays Frank (married to Shelley and in charge of this town... subtlties are not required) and threatens to steal the show despite his limited screen time. He channels his natural charm and charisma, and plays Frank as a cult leader. More specifically, he is uncannily like Jordan Peterson, which is fucking hilarious. Once you hear it, you won't be able to "unhear" it. Apparently Peterson is unhappy with being portrayed as a shallow, vindictive, pseudo-intellectual, spiteful mysoginist who holds cult-like devotion from men unhappy with their lives and believing he has all the answers.
Pine's bloody excellent here, as good as Pugh. He truly shines, as does the film, at a dinner party scene, where it becomes two actors trying to outsmart each other in a social circle, and power dynamics and control and gaslighting lead the way.
But whilst the performances are good, the rest of it becomes a little wobbly.
The first scene transition/edit is jarring and messy, but thankfully not quite "Suicide Squad" or "House of Gucci" levels, and though the movie feels over-tightened in later parts, it's never terribly done after that. There's some good imagery of eyes and spirals (I'm pretty sure that I want this cinematographer to just remake "Uzumaki" and they'd crush it, as it's the same guy, Matthew Libatique, who did "The Fountain" and "Requiem for a Dream", and fucking "Venom" apparently!) and a pastel colour palette which I rather enjoy. It's a contrast to the horror around them.
But some of the directorial choices are a little off, the tension is never quite there. A few excellent sound design choices (the meat early on being fried) and visuals (a finger tracing patterns over the town's roads and a slow overhead zoom from the middle of the model of the town) save it from being too "off", and make this more a diamond in the rough which never quite soars. I think that it would have benefitted from a more sparse, ponderous, intimate style like Scandanavian noir or a kitchen sink drama or "45 Years".
I like it, with all it juggles and its central message/twist, and want to see Olivia Wilde direct more things and work on her craft. It would be fun to see what she makes next.
But watch "Booksmart", for the love of Christ.
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