Opening on 1000 screens – this new Amazon studios ‘buzz film’ is apparently doing with movies, what they did with books.
If you wondered what happened to Keanu Reeves or Christina Hendricks (The bossomy- red head from Mad Men) you can find them here….
When sweet and innocent, 16 year old Jesse (Elle Fanning) runs to Hollywood – like many young girls – looking to get famous, Christina Hendricks sees something in her soap and water complexion that spells sexy diva. Hendricks sends her on a cattle call. Casting director Alessandro Nivola is only on screen for a split second, but what a second. We recognize him as his made-him-a-star role as ‘Boy Capel’ in Coco Before Chanel.
Elle has to learn to handle the threats of two super models played by Abbey Lee and Bella Heathcorte. They’re like the Robert Palmer video girls. Or mannequins. Next thing we know weird stuff starts to happen and we’re not sure who or what to believe. With elements of jealousy, delusions, fantasies and cut-throat competition, the film feels a bit like what Black Swan did with ballet, only with models. Or in other words, steel stilettos instead of pink slippers.
The film moves at a very mesmerizing pace. You can’t figure out if the film is good or bad, but you can’t take your eyes off the screen, either. It’s a story of inconsistent turns all posing as a sort of gross-out close-to horror film of high stakes modeling. The bigger horror might be how these girls live in an anorexic state in their corpse-like bodies, when fame and beauty surpasses anything worthy in life.
In the end, (and without spoiling the plot) perhaps you can take the girl out of Kansas, but you can’t take Kansas out of the girl. Silly but fun. 2 ½ tiaras