Luckiest Girl Alive (2022)

[SlovakPrincess]

[Guest]

36 minutes ago, SlovakPrincess said:

Good movie but they really should have included a more prominent sexual assault and gun violence trigger warnings and made a better trailer.  It’s a powerful story but has multiple very disturbing scenes. I enjoyed the movie but it wasn’t the movie I was expecting. 

[SlovakPrincess]

I ... have a lot of conflicting feelings about this movie.  

There's been some controversy because people feel like Netflix should've slapped a warning on the movie -- and I tend to agree, I think people are entitled to know there are multiple topics in this movie that could really catch off guard and upset someone. 

It was well-acted across the board.  Mila Kunis is great.  I do like the overall psychological study of a woman who has purposely created this glamorous, successful, and all-about-appearances shell while inside she's seething with rage, resentment, and untreated trauma ... and I ended up liking and understanding her.  

But I kinda feel like the plot is so much that it detracts from the character study.  For instance, the main character (Ani) has one friend (a fairly minor character) that she apparently has told everything to, while hiding huge parts of herself from her fiancé, her mother, her boss, etc.  How did Ani come to trust this one woman after a lifetime of learning not to fully trust anyone else?  The movie doesn't have time to tell us!  Maybe this should have been a limited series??

The plot almost ... fights with itself, if that makes sense ... I know it was both based on a novel and in part inspired by trauma suffered by the book's author, so obviously the movie is just following the book's plot ... however,

Spoiler

having a school shooting plot AND a sexual assault plot in the same movie is ... a lot.  It works in the course of the story logically and in terms of the mystery, but it's two very loaded topics at odds with each other, because some of the shooting victims were the perpetrators of the assault.    

The movie has something worthwhile to say about sexual assault, and how society reacts and often fails to support the victim.  With respect to mass shootings, it's almost counterproductive (in real life, it's usually not the case that a mass shooter is targeting specific people for doing specific bad things), and I almost wish the author and movie had avoided that hot button issue.    But, again, I'm conflicted!  

I don't know, what do other people think?  

Edited October 16, 2022 by SlovakPrincess

[Spartan Girl]

I thought it was good, though I agree the criticisms are valid.

I loved the part where Ani confronted the guy that raped her. Fine, him getting paralyzed was terrible, but instead of telling the truth about what really happened, he threw her under the bus. Whatever good he did for gun rights does not make up for that, and I’m glad Ani told him so. And good for her telling his stupid supporter to go fuck herself at the end.

[SlovakPrincess]

What I really liked about those scenes was how well they highlighted why Ani held it all in for so long — she knew the reaction would be “well, sorry that happened to you, but it’s really inconvenient for you to bring this up  — he’s a hero now and has a family!” 
 

And she was finally ready to fight back against people trying to shame her and minimize  what was done to her.

[memememe76]

I was expecting Mila was gonna play one of those characters who climbs her way to the top, hiding her scamming past. I was not expecting all of the issues at play here. Mila was great. I too had some issues with the plot. I also think I needed to see more of Mila actually climbing the ladder. Most of the movie was about her unraveling. I wanted to know more about the kids still alive. Like, those kids are from families that are in that environment Mila was able to get herself into. 

[Spartan Girl]

Also want to add 1) the Cruel Summer actress knocked it out of the part as teen Ani/Tiffani and 2) Ani’s mom was just the worst. Supportive in public but slut-shaming her in private. I’m glad it sounded like Ani’s story exposed her for what she really was.

I feel bad that the teacher who tried to help Ani wound up fired for it. He was a real one.

[Cementhead]

deleted

Edited October 19, 2022 by Cementhead

[millennium]

This movie was all over the place, like it didn't know what it wanted to be.   Is it a story about a social-climbing imposter?  Is it a story about the trauma of rape?   Is it a story about school shootings?   Also, at 39, Mila Kunis wasn't very believable as a young woman out to make a name for herself professionally, let alone marrying a young, wealthy socialite.   I mean, writing about blow jobs at 39?   And maybe it's just me, but what gang-rape survivor wants a job where she has to glamorize sex every day? The part probably should have gone to someone ten or fifteen years younger.     The actress playing high school Ani reminded me of a young Anna Paquin.

[Spartan Girl]

I am reading the book right now and it is definitely edgier. Book Luke was way more of an entitled douchebag.

Edited October 21, 2022 by Spartan Girl

[KaveDweller]

I liked the movie, but didn't find it as good as the book. When I read the book, I couldn't put it down because I wanted to find out what happened. In the movie they reference the school shooting early on, but in the book it was a later reveal. The movie was well done, but it just felt like it was missing key parts of the story. The acting was all good though.

They also revised the ending a bit.

I agree they needed a trigger warning. The sexual assault scenes were very graphic and disturbing.

[the eskimo]

On 10/16/2022 at 3:49 PM, SlovakPrincess said:

For instance, the main character (Ani) has one friend (a fairly minor character) that she apparently has told everything to, while hiding huge parts of herself from her fiancé, her mother, her boss, etc.  How did Ani come to trust this one woman after a lifetime of learning not to fully trust anyone else?  The movie doesn't have time to tell us!

I seriously thought there was going to be a twist that the friend was really a dead high school friend that Ani kept confiding in to deal with her trauma! I don't even think we got her name, and she kept popping up at weird times without much introduction (like at the party at Luke's parents house). 

The movie had a lot of good aspects, but the trailer was very misleading. I really thought this was going to be more of a suspense/thriller/twist ending type of movie, when it was really more of straightforward drama. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I wasn't constantly looking for the twist! 

[nomodrama]

Having a teen daughter this was one of the scariest things I've watched recently. The scenes of Tifani being repeatedly sexually abused the way she was were horrifying. It boggles the mind that young men/boys could be so evil. Hearing her crying out in pain and then begging Dean to wait, were stomach churning. 

I think having the assault and shooting worked in this case because it put Ani in an even more difficult place narratively. It is hard enough for victims to come forward and turn in their assailants but how do you do it if they are cruelly murdered and one is wounded beyond repair.  Arthur put Ani in an even worse position. He wasn't wrong when he was pushing her to come forward and put an end to the boys bullying and bad behavior, but by killing them he turned them from monsters into martyrs. 

[Kel Varnsen]

I watched this tonight with my wife and even though I wasn't sure what to expect after watching the trailer I thought it was quite good.

One thing I thought was interesting was how what exactly was going on with the rape scene was kind of hard to follow (partially because all of those prep school guys that assaulted her looked kind of similar). But in the end I think that worked since Ani was also very disoriented so it kind of mirrored what she was feeling. 

On 11/4/2022 at 6:38 PM, nomodrama said:

I think having the assault and shooting worked in this case because it put Ani in an even more difficult place narratively. It is hard enough for victims to come forward and turn in their assailants but how do you do it if they are cruelly murdered and one is wounded beyond repair.  

What is extra fucked up about linking the rape and the shooting is that Ani saved the life of her rapist by killing someone who was her friend. And even with that she still gets treated like garbage.

Edited January 7, 2023 by Kel Varnsen