Tyler Culleton

Keeping it vague to avoid spoilers ____________________________________________ In my view the role of cinema is to inspire reflection and feeling from the audience. By that definition this movie delivers. In terms of plot-there is a mountain of contrivance and hand-waved legal assumption that needs to occur to make it work as portrayed and I am overlooking these aspects because the plot-in my opinion-was not the desired focus of the director; it was the commentary. First off not a single character is likable by design. Whether their failing be incompetence, pride, culpability, greed, or sociopathic tendencies you will not find a darling here. This mire of flawed people provides both the means and ways for our terrible "protagonist" to operate. In many ways the Main Character is painted as a personification of the modern day American Dream. In a society that has become increasingly infatuated with gaining wealth and decreasingly critical of the morality of how it is accumulated, Marla's character displays the uncomfortable truth of this practice as a zero-sum game. Her creed pulls from all of the cliches and mantras we are told hold the key to success, when in realty it is her ruthless and amoral actions that serve to achieve her goals. The hypocrisy of these two ideals-being self made by virtue of willpower, yet actually gaining success through the explotation and theft of others-is explored in a manner that is equal parts depressingly true to life and infuriating, leaving the audience aching for justice. When that moment does arrive it is done so in a way that makes you disgusted with the systemic failings that make its method of deliverance necessary, and uneasy with your level of comfort regarding its outcome. All in all a very well acted and styled film that attempts to identify the gap between the golden idols of America's yester-years with the tarnished practices and loopholes of our current reality. In a manner that is maddiningly similar to our modern climate the story leaves you starved for justice only to deliver it in a way that is initially cathartic but ultimately unsatisfying. Overall I feel the film reaches its intended destination beautifully, but definitely gets a little lost in terms of plot along the way.