tongueincheek

I binged the first 5 episodes this past weekend and really fell in love with its unflinching voice as it amplifies those voices of survivors of sexual violence. I hope MTV knows what it has on its hands. I'm dreading this show being cancelled. I really love and appreciate how subversive the show and its characters are. The whole cast is really killing it, but Eliza Bennett keeps impressing with every episode. She's, no doubt, got the most difficult role here and she's not missing a single beat. The confrontation scene with Nate was brutally cathartic. I loved the writing - so often, a victim's words are manipulated against them, but everything Jules told Nate was clear cut...there was no misconstruing any of that. That scene also solidified how fantastic Eliza's American accent is because of her intonations...I didn't catch a single slip in her accent. Also, that last scene with Kennedy (fab work by Aisha Dee as well) was so crushing.

I'm someone who's rooting for BDH. I thought it was her performance that really anchored this episode and makes it worth watching (along with the production design). I thought her best work was in 50/50 and THE HELP, not doubt, this episode of Black Mirror is her career-best yet. It's a very difficult role that requires her to measure and balance a range of complexities. She did it very well from my lens.

Yep, I recall reading/hearing from multiple references that something like 2 directors, a costume designer who was working with Tate Taylor on another project, and Emily Blunt (they have the same stylist) herself all recommended Haley for Megan. I had read the book first and was completely underwhelmed by the twist reveal. Now having seen the film, I've concluded (I'm sure this is obvious) that the book itself -- with the way it's structured -- was just very challenging to adapt in a cinematic way. The filmed lacked the "thriller" aspect because it spent so much time in exposition, and yet I still feel like I wanted more character insight, especially since they really left out so much of Megan's and Anna's backstories (understandably, but still). A poorly adapted script made for choppy editing. Still, it's not the worst movie I've seen. The performances here really salvaged it, and were worth the price of admission, namely Emily Blunt and Haley Bennett. Emily alway's been wonderful to me, so I'm not surprised she turned in such an excellent showing (much more than the material deserved). And I've been rooting for Haley Bennett for a good decade now, as I've always seen the potential there. She was enigmatic and alluring here. It's a tough role quite thankless role. Rebecca Ferguson got the short end of the stick here, her talents completely wasted on what should've been a much more complicated role.