Her Smell (2018)

May 13, 2019 5:28 PM

A self-destructive punk rocker struggles with sobriety while trying to recapture the creative inspiration that led her band to success.

Elisabeth Moss unleashes her inner Courtney Love in the bravely abrasive rock drama Her Smell [AV Club]

posted by sacrifix (2 comments total)

Some notes: This movie really impressed me. Moss's character was so hard to watch, both for myself and for everyone else on screen. The feeling of mounting dread was palpable. I feel like the IMDB-provided blurb is a bit inaccurate, but it will have to do as I couldn't come up with anything better. The dialogue was all written, instead of adlibbed, which is surprising. Highlight of the movie would have to be Becky's cover of Heaven. Why are all child actors so awful? The scenes went on for soooo looong, and that is not a bad thing. Gave me time to marinate in the cringe.
posted by sacrifix at 5:32 PM on May 13, 2019 [2 favorites]

This is a weird one. I enjoyed it. It was a bit hard at first for me to get into, because I was grappling with the time period -- the film seems to be set in the mid-'90s to the early '00s, but nothing looks like that era, the bands don't sound like bands from that era, and indeed (other than the absence of cell phones) basically no effort whatsoever was made to conjure that era, and yet...this is clearly not our era. Maybe it doesn't really matter anyway? Ultimately I think period pieces are all just a way for us to see ourselves through a different filter.

Elisabeth Moss is incredible in this. If there's no point to the film other than to display her range, that's enough.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:03 PM on May 20, 2019 [1 favorite]