Back half of a double-header with No Hard Feelings. Both movies are driven by similar themes, even if they’re vastly different in tone and intentions.
Great performance from Aubrey Plaza, really wish that more people knew how much she’s stretched herself in roles like this and Black Bear. This feels like Michael Mann-lite (I got echoes of Dennis Haysbert’s doomed character in Heat). If this were Mann, though, the ending would’ve been way bleaker. It just feels like John Patton Ford pulled his punches in the final third.
So much anger coursing through Plaza’s performance, though—I was balanced on a knife’s edge the whole time during the second interview scene. Something about those interview scenes made me think of Mackenzie Davis’s character in Always Shine—the desperation so close to the surface it can’t help but leak out before turning to rage.