ALICE, DARLING

Anna Kendricks plays Alice, a young career woman who's in a psychological and emotionally abusive relationship with Simon (Charlie Carrick). Not all forms of abuse are physical in nature and this film explores those tropes, which there's plenty of from Alice constantly pulling her own hair out, disassociated from her friends whom she's on a week-long vacation with, dropping whatever she's doing to answer his texts & phone calls, sending him pictures on demand, etc. Alice feels guilty because she lied to Simon, saying she had to go to Minnesota for a work trip when in actuality, she went on a trip with her best friends Tess (Kaniehtiio Horn) and Sophie (Wunmi Mosaku) to celebrate Tess' 40th birthday. Again, at first Alice is distant from her friends until Alice and Tess work through there issues, things return to normal until Simon unexpectedly arrives. The film is blatant and almost too over-the-top with the signs Alice is displaying that the audience and her friends can clearly see yet Alice chalks it up to "her love for Simon." I do applaud the effort to deal with such a topic that doesn't get enough attention while balancing and not making this another misogynistic, feminine, all men are pigs story. Yes, Simon is the villain and an extremely manipulative and unlikable character, which he's supposed to be; however, the film doesn't go off the rails assuming all men are Simon. Kendrick does a wonderful job with the character. 6/10