In the first half of the movie, Charlotte is not a good person. The Perfection extols damaging tropes like surviving sexual violence making one ‘stronger’ and excusing abuse due to trauma. Whether they should be done away with altogether is a separate discussion, but what remains true is The Perfection is a bad entry. While directors execute some better than others, the question remains about using sexual violence against women as a plot point at all. Some better known ones are Revenge, I Spit on Your Grave, and The Last House on the Left. Rape-revenge movies are a known subgenre of horror.
Surprise, surpise, this isn’t a movie about the rivalry between two musicians who will do anything to be on top - it’s a rape-revenge movie. Once you’ve sat through the dull and glacial pacing of the first half, the movie’s first twist comes to light. Netflix, especially, should know better, and should include a content warning for this movie.
Not knowing a movie or TV show’s thematic content is not worth risking other people’s mental health. Going in blind for some will mean witnessing content that is possibly triggering and upsetting. Warning: The remainder of this section contains spoilers. Look online and you’ll see people who have already watched The Perfection recommending others go in blind - this is a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad idea. Allison Williams as Charlotte in The Perfection | Photo: IMDB/Netflix This is not what feminism looks like What starts off seemingly as a mix between the rivalry for stardom in Black Swan, and the ruthless music teacher of Whiplash, slowly (agonizingly slowly, stupidly slowly, wastes-everyone’s-time slowly) morphs into a different movie altogether that doesn’t at all earn its twists and turns. Upon her mother’s death, she ventures back into the music world, only to realize Bachoff has a new star pupil. When the movie begins, audiences learn Charlotte left the school to care for her ailing mother. What it gives audiences, instead, is a wholly predictable, cringey, and dull horror movie with sexist tropes that should have been done away with long ago.Īllison Williams (Get Out) and Logan Browning (Dear White People) star in the film as Charlotte and Lizzie, two renowned cello players from the Bachoff music school. Charmelo, and Nicole Snyder, The Perfection posits itself as a feminist revenge flick wanting to cash in on the slew of Women’s Marches and angry protest fists. The problem is - it’s not actually an LGBTI film, and its imagined feminist edge is, instead, misogynistic and tired.ĭirected by Richard Shepard, and co-written by Shepard, Eric C.
The Perfection, a female-led horror film, falls under the LGBTI movies category. Netflix released one of its many original films on Friday (24 May).