Single White Female (1992)

After reading Cinematic Corner's Forgotten, underrated and unseen erotic thrillers from the 90s last Friday —yes, it's embarrassing that it took me so long to read it—, I noticed Netflix had just added one of the movies in that post, Single White Female, and decided to check it out. 

The story follows Allison "Allie" Jones (Bridget Fonda), a young New York businesswoman who is looking for a new roommate after breaking up with her boyfriend, Sam (Steven Weber). After meeting several candidates, she picks Hedra "Hedy" Carlson (Jennifer Jason Leight), a sweet and shy young woman who seems like the perfect roommate. And she is the perfect roommate, until Allie and Sam get back together.

The plot is very simple and rather predictable as you know what's going to happen in advance, there are too many conveniences to move the story forward, and there are probably too many subplots involved that take away the focus from the main storyline, and yet it’s compelling and gripping and kept me on the edge of my seat from its entire running time.

The most compelling aspect of Single White Female though is the two female characters, Allie and Hedy. While they could have used more depth and development as they are pretty shallow and clichéd, they are quite interesting as neither of them is a sympathetic character and yet you feel sympathy for both —Allie is sweet and innocent and yet she is horrible to Hedy and deserves what's coming to her; Hedy is quite the opposite as she turns out to be a psycho and yet you can't really blame her for what she does. Also, the (sexual) tension between them is wonderful. 

And the performances are just as compelling. Bridget Fonda doesn't have much to do, but she really does wonders with the little she's given and shines as the independent, confident and yet naive Allie. Jennifer Jason Leigh is terrific in the role of mousy, neurotic Hedy, her performance being genuinely scary and creepy. 

Columbia Pictures

The supporting characters, on the other hand, are nothing but stereotypes —the gay friend, the boyfriend who just can't keep it in his pants, the molesting boss—, but the actors still provide decent support, the standout being Peter Friedman as the gay friend who unfortunately isn't around much. 

Ultimately, while it's not a perfect movie, Single White Female is a pretty tense thriller with an over-the-top and yet effective climax and plenty of unrealistic situations, splatter and out-of-place moments —Allie watching Hedy masturbating doesn't feel quite right. It would make way more sense the other way around.

Annihilation (2018)

Though I didn't really like Alex Garland's Ex Machina (but I'm planning on giving it another chance), I was really excited about his latest film, Annihilation, and really pissed off that everybody outside of the US got to see this on Netflix instead of cinemas. It has an upside though, no money wasted if the movie sucked, but that was not the case. 

A year after his disappearance, Kane (Oscar Isaac) goes back home to his biologist wife Lena (Natalie Portman) but he doesn't remember where he's been and how he got home. He suddenly gets sick and is rushed to a hospital. Once there, in order to help Kane, Lena joins a team made up of an anthropologist (Tuva Novotny), a physicist (Tessa Thompson), a psychologist (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and a paramedic (Gina Rodriguez) and embark on an expedition into the Shimmer, a mysterious electromagnetic field.

It's a pretty simple plot that unfolds at a quite slow pace, it does have a few twists here and there but nothing that mind-blowing to leave you speechless, the final twist included which I saw coming miles ahead. There are many plot holes, several unnecessary subplots and nothing makes sense basically since nobody really cared about answering the questions posed. And yet it's engaging and very enjoyable.

The characters too are flawed but they all have interesting backstories --revealed through flashbacks or a few lines of dialogue--, they are developed and we get to know each main character both emotionally and psychologically. Sure, most of the things they do don't make any sense (above-mentioned plot holes) but it's still fascinating watching them in the Shimmer, how they react to the weird and bizarre happenings and I was invested in the characters' fates.

Paramount Pictures, Netflix

Natalie Portman gives a very good performance as Lena. She is able to deliver, at every moment, complex emotions only through her facial expressions, she carries the whole film and gives it its emotional charge. The support provided by Jennifer Jason Leigh and Tessa Thompson is pretty solid too, and Oscar Isaac gives yet another great performance. I did find, however, Gina Rodriguez and her character utterly annoying. She is miles away from Jane Villanueva, the role she is most known for, and I give her credit for playing such a different role here, fact remains she was annoying.

As for Alex Garland, while his script hasn't won me completely, I liked his direction. He skillfully built tension and suspense and delivered an exciting science-fiction film enhanced by a magnetic score and even more magnetic visuals.