Movie Review: Eileen (2023)

Genre: Drama  

Director: William Oldroyd  

Starring: Anne Hathaway, Thomasin McKenzie, Shea Whigham  

Running Time: 98 minutes  

Synopsis: In Massachusetts of the 1960s, 24 year-old Eileen (Thomasin McKenzie) works at a men's prison. Still single, she daydreams about sexual encounters, while at home she cares for her perpetually drunk father Jim (Shea Whigham), a retired police captain. When glamorous psychologist Rebecca (Anne Hathaway) joins the prison staff, a mutual attraction develops between the two women, and they both get involved in the case of a prisoner who brutally murdered his father.

What Works Well: The adaptation of Ottessa Moshfegh's novel carries the promise of a wallflower's imminent awakening. Despite a poorly handled and frazzled change in narrative tone, the two lead actresses remain committed to their roles. Thomasin McKenzie conveys burgeoning sexual confusion and curiosity clashing with domestic frustrations, and while Anne Hathaway oversells the liberated woman shtick, she never shies away from filling the screen with personality.

What Does Not Work As Well: What appears to be a smooth glide towards a simple-enough romance takes a weird turn in the final act and never recovers. The backstory of a young man who murdered his father suddenly and undeservedly takes centre stage, and all too late to explain the sudden detours in key character behaviours. The intricate investments in Eileen and Rebecca as complex women worth knowing are unceremoniously discarded.

Key Quote:

Rebecca: I live a little differently than most people.

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Movie Review: Joy (2024)

Genre: Biographical Drama  

Director: Ben Taylor  

Starring: Thomasin McKenzie, James Norton, Bill Nighy  

Running Time: 115 minutes  

Synopsis: It's the late 1960s in Cambridge, and nurse Jean Purdy (Thomasin McKenzie) is hired by researcher Dr. Robert Edwards (James Norton) to work on a new reproductive technique. They team up with controversial surgeon Patrick Steptoe (Bill Nighy), secure a derelict lab in Oldham, and recruit volunteer would-be parents. Their attempts to inseminate an egg outside the embryo are met with societal and religious opposition, and Jean is shunned by her mother Gladys (Joanna Scanlan). The experiments continue for years without a breakthrough, increasing the emotional toll on Jean.

What Works Well: This a breezy story of perseverance and determination to advance the science of fertility. Mostly seen through the eyes of the less famous team member Jean Purdy, the drama finds the right balance between respecting science and not succumbing to details. The rudimentary and barely-funded backwater lab in Oldham adds character and confirmation that innovations can occur in unlikely surroundings. Thomasin McKenzie is a bright spark as Jean Purdy's growth into an empathetic nurse mirrors the maturing research work, and she is ably supported by James Norton (inventive scientist but inept at public relations) and Bill Nighy (typical crustiness).

What Does Not Work As Well: The societal opposition is touched upon but only at superficial levels, and it's left to Jean's mom to personify the depth of discomfort with the science of conception. With the well-known outcome a foregone conclusion, the storytelling is more functional than artistic, and the volunteer parents are mostly walk-ons.

Key Quote:

Edwards: I am a scientist Jean. I fail every day in the hope that I'll succeed once in twenty years.

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Movie Review: Last Night In Soho (2021)

Genre: Supernatural Psychological Horror Drama Mystery  

Director: Edgar Wright  

Starring: Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor-Joy, Matt Smith, Terence Stamp, Diana Rigg  

Running Time: 116 minutes  

Synopsis: Mild-mannered Ellie (Thomasin McKenzie) was raised by her grandmother to love 1960s music and culture, and now moves to London to pursue a fashion design education. She rents a room from the kindly Ms Collins (Diana Rigg) in the SoHo neighbourhood, and starts experiencing visions of the vivacious Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy), who arrived in 1960s London seeking fame as a singer. Sandie is spotted by talent agent Jack (Matt Smith), who appears helpful but has vile intentions. Ellie is initially inspired and exhilarated by her visions, but when Sandie's story turns dark, Ellie's life becomes a nightmare.

What Works Well: In this mind-bending and genre-melding delight, director and co-writer Edgar Wright explores themes of loneliness and fitting-in while simultaneously saluting and persecuting the Swinging Sixties. After a careful introduction to Ellie's ambitions, character, and mental state, Sandie enters the picture with a bang, Anya Taylor-Joy luxuriating in a fearless role. London of the mid-1960s is recreated with loving affection boosted by a terrific soundtrack, inventive cinematography, and clever use of mirrors. But the defining fashions and nightclub pizzazz also hide an exploitive culture feeding on vulnerable young women. A devious across-the-decades crime mystery draws Ellie into danger beyond just nightmares triggered by the past.

What Does Not Work As Well: The horror sequences featuring ghost-like beings lean towards excess and diminish the more effective psychological suspense milieu.

Key Quote:

Ellie: Has a woman ever died in my room?

Ms Collins: This is London. Someone has died in every room in every building and on every street corner in the city.

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The Movies Of Thomasin McKenzie

All movies starring Thomasin McKenzie and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Leave No Trace (2018)

The King (2019)

Jojo Rabbit (2019)

Lost Girls (2020)

The Power Of The Dog (2021)

Last Night In Soho (2021)

Eileen (2023)

Joy (2024)

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The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: Jojo Rabbit (2019)

A coming of age fantasy adventure set at the end of World War Two, Jojo Rabbit is an inventive story of a child's awakening as the world crumbles.

As Berlin braces for a final battle towards the end of the war, Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis) turns ten and is eligible to join the Hitler youth. He fantasizes that Hitler (Taika Waititi) is his intermittent kooky companion. Jojo is the only surviving child of single mom Rosie (Scarlett Johansson), who secretly advocates against the Nazi party. Jojo attends a training camp run by the cynical Captain Klenzendorf (Sam Rockwell), where he learns he is not capable of violence and earns the nickname Jojo Rabbit.

But everything changes when Jojo stumbles upon Elsa (Thomasin McKenzie), a Jewish girl stashed by Rosie in a secret room within the walls of their house. Indoctrinated by anti-Jewish hatred Jojo is initially as shocked and hostile as a ten year old can be, but gradually the two start to communicate.

An irreverent satire with a warm heart, Jojo Rabbit bravely combines the violent death throes of a fascist regime with a tender story of a boy who may yet find salvation. Director Taika Waititi also co-produced and wrote the screenplay (in addition to playing Hitler), and with wicked humour and edgy encounters seeks the rebirth of the next generation from the ashes of disaster.

Visually, Waititi's aesthetic carries echoes of Wes Anderson's joyful symmetry and vivid colours, but with more perspective depth. Berlin is recreated as devoid of fighting-aged men, a city still spouting regime slogans while awaiting a doomsday fate.

A deft touch is required to tease laughs out of tragedy, and Waititi find the perfect balance. Moments of trauma are all around Jojo: anti-regime advocates are hung in the local square, mean looking dressed-in-black Jew hunters invade and search his house, and the final battle for Berlin features the needless slaughter of bumbling women, children and the elderly duped into a futile fight. The film not only finds the ludicrous underbelly of a world gone mad, but also provides young Jojo with a way out.

His evolving relationship with Elsa forms the warm heart of the story, and here Waititi excels in barbed exchanges puncturing a rotten regime's pitiful embrace of irrational hatred. Elsa emerges as not just a representative of all who suffered, but also a courageous defender of innocence and a harbinger of a different future, while drawing a path for Jojo to stay safe and survive the awful present.

The two young cast members accept the challenge of carrying the acting load. Roman Griffin Davis and Thomasin McKenzie are soulfully captivating as adults-in-the-making navigating their way in a reality ruined by their elders. Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, and Rebel Wilson provide penetrating support.

Funny, profound, but most of all acerbic, Jojo Rabbit hops to brilliance.



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Movie Review: Lost Girls (2020)

A biographical drama, Lost Girls focuses on familial advocacy for at-risk women operating on society's margins.

In New Jersey, Mari Gilbert (Amy Ryan) is a single mother raising two daughters, Sherre (Thomasin McKenzie) and Sarra (Oona Laurence). Eldest daughter Shannan, who has left home and is working in the sex trade, promises to visit but fails to show up. Alarmed, Mari contacts her daughter's boyfriend and driver, and learns Shannon visited a Long Island client in the Oak Beach area the night she went missing.

With police Commissioner Richard Dormer (Gabriel Byrne) looking into Shannon's case, a grizzly discovery is made: the bodies of four other sex trade workers are found in the thick bush near Oak Beach, all murdered by strangulation. With Shannon still missing and the police investigation stalled, Mari takes the initiative, raising the case with the media and identifying Oak Beach resident Dr. Peter Hackett (Reed Birney) as a potential suspect.

An adaptation of the Robert Kolker book and inspired by real events, Lost Girls is subtitled An Unsolved American Mystery, as indeed the Long Island Serial Killer has not yet been identified. The absence of a conclusion means director Liz Garbus and writer Michael Werwie are looking at impacts rather than resolutions, and Mari Gilbert as a mother pushed into advocacy takes centre stage.

In an unfortunately familiar story, sex trade workers are treated as less worthy victims, and Lost Girls taps into Mari's rage as she is confronted with the double blow of loss and police apathy. The official investigation is sloppy at best, the gated community of Oak Beach good at keeping outsiders out and secrets in, and Mari has to resort to banging on doors and leaks from community whistleblower Joe Scalise (Kevin Corrigan), who may have ulterior motives.

As a narrative it's not much to go on and Lost Girls runs out of content as quickly as the police lose interest, although Amy Ryan does her best to breathe anguished energy into the role of a working class mom sparring against an uncaring system and emerging as the voice of the voiceless. Thomasin McKenzie contributes a dash of side plot as the daughter breaking out of a shielded reality. Despite noble intentions, Lost Girls is a tragedy consumed by scrubland and the grey lethargy of indifference.



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