Fresh stars Daisy Edgar-Jones, Sebastion Stan and Jonica T. Gibbs, and is directed by Mimi Cave in her directorial debut.
It tells the story of 20-something, Noa, played by Daisy Edgar-Jones, trying to navigate the modern dating world. After a disappointing dating experience, she happens upon the charming, charismatic, seemingly harmless Steve, played by Sebastian Stan, who takes her on holiday to his fortress-like summer home very early in their relationship, where he holds her and several other women captive in order to harvest their flesh to sell to rich male consumers.
Barely ever has a movie got me so into it and loving it in the first act, only to fall into something that I thought was really stupid in the final act. The first half hour is masterful. Before a belated title card and opening credits, not unlike The Empty Man, the opening scene is her on a date with someone, where any and every awkward and unpleasant moment of a date gone wrong is shown to us in such an astutely cringey way that it's genius. The film is then paced excellently, as she meets Steve, they get to know each other, we meet her sassy best friend, played by Jonica T. Gibbs, all leading to one of the better drink-spiking scenes I've seen in a movie.
The final act then becomes a barrage of plot holes, predictable moments, and oddly inconsistent character behaviour. There's a bartender character who was completely unnecessary to even be in the movie, and when he has the opportunity to do something useful at Steve's summer home, he gets scared and leaves. There are little moments of violence that seemed brashly childish and unsubtle, and whereas the scathing humour of the nightmares of dating in the first act actually worked, the darkly sadistic humour in the final act fell flat on its face (sometimes literally).
Steve's main objective of harvesting the meat of women is to sell the meat to mega rich male cannibals (the 1% of the 1% as Steve calls the market), who pay a hefty dollar to consume these decadent delicacies. There is an interesting comment to be made there along the lines of: men who have everything, who have endless resources at their disposal, who are untouchable, who have no doubt done terrible things to get where they are - what more can they do to brandish their endless power? Perhaps the only thing left is to literally consume the meat of women to fulfill their unfulfillable, extravagant lives. There could be a criticism to be made on the mega rich 1% - when is enough enough, or is it ever enough? But the film just doesn't go there.
It's an impressive directing debut, Mimi Cave has a distinct vision and style, and I'm keen to see what she does next. But the silliness of the final act, and the missed opportunity to really say something about the mega rich brought this one down for me.
It tells the story of 20-something, Noa, played by Daisy Edgar-Jones, trying to navigate the modern dating world. After a disappointing dating experience, she happens upon the charming, charismatic, seemingly harmless Steve, played by Sebastian Stan, who takes her on holiday to his fortress-like summer home very early in their relationship, where he holds her and several other women captive in order to harvest their flesh to sell to rich male consumers.
Barely ever has a movie got me so into it and loving it in the first act, only to fall into something that I thought was really stupid in the final act. The first half hour is masterful. Before a belated title card and opening credits, not unlike The Empty Man, the opening scene is her on a date with someone, where any and every awkward and unpleasant moment of a date gone wrong is shown to us in such an astutely cringey way that it's genius. The film is then paced excellently, as she meets Steve, they get to know each other, we meet her sassy best friend, played by Jonica T. Gibbs, all leading to one of the better drink-spiking scenes I've seen in a movie.
The final act then becomes a barrage of plot holes, predictable moments, and oddly inconsistent character behaviour. There's a bartender character who was completely unnecessary to even be in the movie, and when he has the opportunity to do something useful at Steve's summer home, he gets scared and leaves. There are little moments of violence that seemed brashly childish and unsubtle, and whereas the scathing humour of the nightmares of dating in the first act actually worked, the darkly sadistic humour in the final act fell flat on its face (sometimes literally).
Steve's main objective of harvesting the meat of women is to sell the meat to mega rich male cannibals (the 1% of the 1% as Steve calls the market), who pay a hefty dollar to consume these decadent delicacies. There is an interesting comment to be made there along the lines of: men who have everything, who have endless resources at their disposal, who are untouchable, who have no doubt done terrible things to get where they are - what more can they do to brandish their endless power? Perhaps the only thing left is to literally consume the meat of women to fulfill their unfulfillable, extravagant lives. There could be a criticism to be made on the mega rich 1% - when is enough enough, or is it ever enough? But the film just doesn't go there.
It's an impressive directing debut, Mimi Cave has a distinct vision and style, and I'm keen to see what she does next. But the silliness of the final act, and the missed opportunity to really say something about the mega rich brought this one down for me.