User Reviews

I like movies, all kinds. I've probably seen upwards of 4000 to 4500 movies. Occasionally I like to see a smaller, independent film like this one, it is good to see what types of new approaches are being tried.

I found this on Netflix streaming movies. The reviews and comments are all over the place, from "I hated this trash" to "A really fine character study."

My own evaluation is somewhere in between the two extremes, it is an interesting experiment but to me fails on most accounts.

Elisabeth Moss is Catherine, whose successful and well-known artist father has recently died. She too is an artist, not as accomplished, and has gone into a funk of sorts. To refresh herself she travels to spend a week with her "best friend" at the friend's secluded lake house and do some drawing too.

The friend is British actress Katherine Waterston doing a very authentic American accent as Virginia. We really get no backstory and are struck by how severe, judgmental, and uncaring Virginia seems to be. In fact she talks at one point about how she relishes getting people out of her life, including her newborn that we never really find out about.

Then there is Patrick Fugit who is the intrusive lake house neighbor Rich. He is good but I hadn't seen him in anything since he was a teenager in "Almost Famous" and seeing him as a 30-something is a bit disconcerting. My fault, not the movie's.

Anyway the problem I have with the movie is I never saw the main characters as having realistic conversations and discussions, as normal friends might. I was always aware that they were working off a script that someone wrote. And if the interactions between friends didn't seem real, what does that leave us with? Nothing because there is no big "ah-ha" moment before the ending.

I am glad I saw it, I could not recommend it to anyone else.

Double bill time! US indie filmmaker Alex Ross Perry's two latest offerings, vary in their own strains, LISTEN UP PHILIP is a Woody Allen-esque drama-comedy and QUEEN OF EARTH probes into a more psycho-horror genre without resorting to cheap scare.

The former, stars Schwartzman as the titular Philip Lewis Friedman, an up-and-coming novelist is on the cusp of publishing his second novel, but finds himself in contradictions with everything in his life. Wearing a seasonally-inappropriate jacket, a metaphor of his failure of accustoming his ever-distending ego to the reality, Philip waywardly puts a damper on the relationship with his live- in girlfriend of two years, Ashley (Moss), an aspiring photographer, after he accepts an open-end invitation from a venerable writer Ike Zimmerman (Pryce), whom he vastly admires, to stay with him in the latter's country house under the pretext of rendering a finishing touch to his upcoming novel.

Cynical as me, an instantaneous question emerges, why Zimmerman wants to help Philip at the first place? Since what we have been imbued as far is that Philip is an objectionable egomaniac who may or may not have the potential to be a sterling writer, betrays his sexist stance and well- conceived jealousy as soon as he has the possibility to achieve something (Ashley has always been the breadwinner in their relationship). Cunningly the downside of Ike's seemingly comfy life bares itself, he needs Philip - not just as an impressionable young man to whom he can impart his wisdom, as much as Philip needs him, the tension between him and his daughter Melanie (Ritter), the writer's blocks and shrouding loneliness consume his strength, more pragmatically and pathetically he needs Philip to be his wingman if he want to get laid with younger chicks. So, to answer my question, Ike sees himself in Philip, and Philip takes him as a role model, they share the same rotten DNAs. Great writers can inspire epiphany and confer wisdom to readers through their erudite thoughts and conception, one might think they (or at least the really estimable ones) would lead a sensible and judicious life, obviously Perry cannot second that.

Introduced by an obtrusively wordy voice-over (Bogosian), continues like a running commentary rambling on the characters' pickles with unapologetically pseudo-intellectual eloquence; shot with hand-held immediacy and close-ups a gogo, LISTEN UP PHILIP is at its worst being too quirky and conceited in its high-brow affectations, while at its best retaining an honest take on a real-life jerk's ups-and-downs, significantly owing to a well-chosen cast, Schwartzman is in his wheelhouse to be mercilessly arrogant and self-centred, which otherwise, accentuates Moss' visceral and layered performance which gratifyingly holds the ground in the finale, and Pryce has been allotted with munificent screen-time to establish Ike as someone whose remorse is as vague as his smugness.

In QUEEN OF EARTH, Alex Ross Perry ventures into a more daring and unsettling territory, pairs Moss and Waterston as two life-long friends Catherine and Virginia, but intriguingly pivots around the mental deterioration of Catherine, who has not only recently loses her artist father (in suicide), not also in the opening sequences, breaks up with her longtime boyfriend James (Audley).

Immediately the camera takes us to a lake house retreat, which is owned by Virginia's uncle. Catherine is invited by Virginia to stay with her there, to recuperate from the nadir. Then flashbacks and cutaways shows that one year earlier, before Catherine losing those two important men in her life, she and James had also spent their vacation with Virginia in the same place, and the atmosphere was not all that pleasant, the two girls were bickering all the time, throwing snide at each other, do they suppose to be besties?

The tranquility doesn't quite work in favour of Catherine, who has no interest in swimming in the lake or jogging in the morning, as if she is struck by some strange lethargy, and the interaction between them is also not wholesome, constantly felt being watched by Virginia, Catherine tip-toes around when she is making phone-calls, their intimate conversations loses its momentum pretty quickly, although, nothing really happens, Catherine becomes increasingly watchful and retreats to herself, especially after the advent of Rich (Fugit), Virginia's man friend lives nearby, whom Catherine and James met also one years before.

Imposing a more static strategy of framing, this time, Perry collectedly deploys natural sound (humming, droning, whirring, rustling) and an unsettlingly ambient score from DeWitt as major players in the game, together they suffuse the narrative as a haunting and mythifying undertone, fittingly trace out Catherine's paranoia and slide. After the sly (if not entirely unnecessary) implications of a murder (with a discombobulating cameo from Keith Poulson) and body horror (the pain in the face could lead to an apposite nightmarish scenario when the bones beneath are struggling for emergence), Catherine consummates her meltdown by giving Rich a mind-blowing dressing-down and later a creepy surrender-pleading-seduction combo to further throw herself down to the mental dysfunctional abyss. Moss is unbelievably versatile and emotive here, chilling, disquieting and unforgiving and Waterston proves herself a dab hand of deception and subtlety in her passive-aggressive retribution.

That's when Perry cagily divulges the reason behind in the last snippet of flashback, if everything turns out to be a carefully planned revenge, could it justify the entire story? It's a tricky question, but one thing is for sure, QUEEN OF EARTH is a surprising oddity endeavours to fearlessly tap into the boundary and essential compositions of friendship between two (female) friends, and artfully construes its aftermath with a firm sleight-of-hand.

I just finished watching this film and came here to read what other people thought about it. I was left with several impressions, perhaps the first being an echo of what's been written in other reviews which is that Elisabeth Moss's performance is stunning. She's a very interesting actress to me, in that her looks are not conventionally pretty and yet she has an awesome face because of the emotion she's able to convey through it. She strikes me as someone I would like to know, and that's not something I experience often. There is something so human and compassionate about her. But now I'm not sure how much of this is her and how much is the role she played here.

Throughout much of this film I was almost eager for it to be over. It is slow, with many long shots of both the two main characters, and inanimate things such as stairs, paintings, and the lake. I especially like what another reviewer said which was something like the script and plot of this film are in the drama genre, whereas the setting, and music are like a horror film. (Sorry for the paraphrasing.) There was such an underlying tension throughout, which I'm sure was intended. I'm not so sure whether the confusion I felt throughout much of it was also intended. For example, I couldn't really understand the relationship between Moss's character and that of Katherine Waterston's. There seemed to be so little good feeling between them, that it was hard to understand why they were even spending time together, beside it being their annual ritual.

In the end, and this is the kind of film I feel the need to see again, I'd say it was really about a woman's descent into madness. Through the flashbacks we learn that Catherine (Moss) had some problems before the death of her father, but that during the week that the film depicts, she unravels, and gets "worse" every day, that is, more paranoid, manic, and depressed. The ending was also ambiguous; she has gone, but the question of where, lingers. Did she ultimately jump into the lake and commit suicide like her father, or did she get herself together and leave a bad situation. I wonder if anyone besides the writer and director knows.

If you're into psychological films, films about madness, or just enjoy watching great acting, definitely catch Queen of Earth.

"Queen of Earth" is a difficult, disturbing movie. It reminds me of Altman's "3 Women", with the use of unbearable silence, dissonant soundtracks, and characters whose motivations are hard to understand, in situations hard for us to contextualise. It is not as haunting as that movie, though, and therefore not as good. I don't think this is one I'm going to be thinking about much after having seen it.

The plot concerns two "best friends" who go away for a week together despite the fact that they don't seem to like each other much. One, the main character, has just been dumped by her boyfriend who was with her when she went away with the same best friend last year. There is also a guy, kind of like an antagonist, who was with the friend last year and has shown up this year again, much to the protagonist's discomfort.

There are some very intense scenes, such as the main character breaking down at a party, and the movie seems to be becoming an enthralling descent into madness, but then it abruptly changes gear, and not for the first time. It's not going to give you any easy answers like that, but in this case, I also came up short on questions.

"Queen of Earth" is a great film. Based off the other reviews here, I think this film is under appreciated.

This film takes a hard look at the complexities and imbalances that occur in long term friendships. As two people get to know each other for longer and longer, facades of politeness and patience slide away as character flaws are exposed. The two women in this story - Catherine and Virginia - have developed a deep understanding of how the other thinks, feels and fears and, for better or for worse, use this to their further their own emotional agendas.

Set entirely in a vacation house in the woods, Catherine has come to Virginia for support after her father died and her boyfriend broke up with her - leaving her emotionally shipwrecked and her life in shambles. Virginia is stuck between caring for her overbearing friend and addressing the ways Catherine mistreated and took advantage of her in the past.

The two women hurl mean thoughts to each other in the form of hard truths - or at least things that they believe to be true. At first glance, it is surprising to see how such a volatile relationship can be sustained as a friendship. However, as the film progresses, we see the need for each character to have someone in their life that may not care for them but, at the very least, understand and be present for them.

The depth of the emotional drama is complemented by the creative camera-work and the beautiful, foreboding soundtrack which elevates this story to something of an emotional thriller. In more ways than one, the building of psychological tension between the women is as exciting as a suspenseful, murder film.

I don't want to give anything away, but there are instances in the film where the story disappears into Catherine's delusions and hallucinations that I personally found over the top and not necessary. I think the film was stronger without it. Additionally, this film does not provide any sort of resolution but I feel in that sense this story mirrors life. Very rarely do we have the privilege of closure in complicated relationships but, by consuming art that addresses the subject, we can better understand them.

If you are inspired and intrigued by films such as Ingmar Bergman's "Persona", Woody Allen's "Hannah and her Sisters" and the midcentury plays of Tennessee Williams and Eugene O'Neil - all stories about characters who simultaneously love and hate each other, than this film is definitely for you.