Jeanne M

I picked this to watch one lazy night as anything involving Anna Kendrick is assured to be entertaining, quirky, and thought provoking. I missed that this was her directorial debut. The movie did not disappoint and involved a whole lot more of my attention than I expected. The cut-alway scenes were at first challenging to watch, like many good novels these days. I had not been aware of the Dating Game Strangler in the 70’s despite, or perhaps of because of, my employ as a detective in a state agency, working primarily undercover when the Green River and Hillside Strangler serial killers were a primary focus. Ted Buddy was a given. What I loved about this movie was the deep subconscious terror and resulting frustration experienced by the surviving-friend character Laura. Unless you’ve lived it, you cannot begin to understand the total flight reaction of your body. I’m thinking this is a inherently female survival thing but akin to wartime PTSD and child trauma. The last section was also jaw dropping in watching the instincts of the surviving teen. So very heart breaking that one so young knew how to out-manipulate an experienced predator. Such scary times. But in a different way from now. The whole movie was, Wow.

Up until now I adored anything involving Christopher Lloyd, Neil Gaimen or Minnie Driver. But this movie left me really disappointed. They stars were great, the picture was well shot and the others actors were interesting but the screenplay sorely lacking in story telling charms.