Alex Ross Perry's Queen of the Earth tells the story of Catherine, a woman who is dealing with a lot of personal tragedy in her life. Her father, a famous artist, has recently died, and Catherine is still dealing with the recent break-up from her longtime boyfriend James. In an attempt to escape, Catherine heads to her best friend Virginia's lake house for relaxation, but unfortunately this proves impossible due to Virginia's inability to be there for her friend. Featuring a tour-de-force performance by Elizabeth Moss, Alex Ross Perry's Queen of Earth is the young filmmakers most impressive film to-date, an intoxicating fever dream of a film that uses a simple story to touch on profound insights into humanity, dependency and relationships. At its core, this is a story of emotionally broekn woman, capturing how their own inability to cope with their troubles leads to hostility and psychological abuse. Catherine is a character who is struggling to find happiness due to her issues of dependency, whether it be from her father who employed her or her long time boyfriend who recently broke up with her, Catherine is the perfect representation of importance being a strong independent individual who doesn't rely on outside influences. The longer Catherine stays with Virginia the more she begins to psychologically unravel, and Queen of Earth is a great reminder of the power atmospheric filmmaking can have, something which more often than not is strictly a bi-product of the horror genre. Queen of Earth is grade A filmmaking, essentially taking a very simple break-up story and turning it into an impressive psychological horror film that feels more like a mood piece at times than a narrative (yes, that's a good thing). The film is moody and bizarre, but underneath this atmospheric tale lies a ton of honesty and truth about individuals and relationships, capturing the conflicting emotions which exist in every breakup, where loneliness and unhappiness can create a biased perspective of how an individual see others and the world around them. While an impressive film from nearly every technical perspective which exists in filmmaking, Queen of the Earth's greatest aspect is how it captures the inherent selfishness of humanity through the characters of Catherine and Virginia, two woman who themselves have a hard time being thoughtful and caring to each other due to being constantly wrapped up in their own self interests. They are friends, but they are never truly there for each other when desperately needed, which in turn leads to increased angst and strife in their relationship. Queen of Earth is a beautifully acted, impressively directed, fever dream of selfishness and despair, capturing humanities built-in selfishness in a profound and interesting way, being simply the latest reminder of why Alex Ross Perry is one of the most fascinating and unique young filmmakers working today.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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