{"id":324,"date":"2024-04-29T22:51:43","date_gmt":"2024-04-29T22:51:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dulcipass.net\/?p=324"},"modified":"2024-05-01T23:44:38","modified_gmt":"2024-05-01T23:44:38","slug":"netflixs-erotic-thriller-millers-girl-is-a-goofy-mess-and-a-solid-jenna-ortega-showcase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/dulcipass.net\/index.php\/2024\/04\/29\/netflixs-erotic-thriller-millers-girl-is-a-goofy-mess-and-a-solid-jenna-ortega-showcase\/","title":{"rendered":"Netflix\u2019s erotic thriller Miller\u2019s Girl is a goofy mess \u2014 and a solid Jenna Ortega showcase"},"content":{"rendered":"<br \/>\n<figure>\n      <img alt=\"Cairo Sweet (Jenna Ortega, in a silver silk dress baring her arms and cleavage) sits at a table covered with books talking on an old-fashioned dial telephone in Miller\u2019s Girl\" src=\"http:\/\/dulcipass.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Miller_s_Girl_1.0.jpg\" \/><figcaption>Photo: Zac Popik\/Lionsgate<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>No one here makes any sense, but it\u2019s going to look great on Jenna\u2019s showreel<\/p>\n<p id=\"O3y8Ec\"><small>This piece on <\/small><small><em>Miller\u2019s Girl<\/em><\/small><small> was originally published in connection with the film\u2019s theatrical release. It has been updated and republished for the film\u2019s arrival on Netflix.<\/small><\/p>\n<p class=\"p--has-dropcap p-large-text\" id=\"mFs471\">No matter how often the argument resurfaces, we <a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/24047285\/robert-downey-jr-oscars-2024-nomination-oppenheimer\">aren\u2019t really running out of movie stars<\/a> \u2014 especially not as far as fandom is concerned. There are still plenty of actors out there with devotees who eagerly track their faves from project to project. Jenna Ortega has built that kind of following, from her child-actor phase as a Disney TV stalwart to playing young Jane on <em>Jane the Virgin<\/em>, the title role in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/23462409\/wednesday-review-netflix-tim-burton\">Netflix\u2019s <em>Wednesday<\/em><\/a>, and one of the new crop of knife-fodder-to-be in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/reviews\/23630723\/scream-6-review-cast-hayden-panettiere-return\">Scream reboot series<\/a>. Her fans have been vocal about the excitement of seeing her take on more adult, more independent, and more ambitious roles. But they\u2019re going to have an interesting time figuring out how to swallow her latest movie <em>Miller\u2019s Girl<\/em>, now that it\u2019s arrived on Netflix.<\/p>\n<p id=\"lvaSUP\">Anyone who felt distanced from their peers in high school and ready to move on to the adult world should find an initial spark of recognition in Jade Halley Bartlett\u2019s writing and directing debut. <em>Miller\u2019s Girl<\/em> stars Ortega as the improbably named Cairo Sweet, a rich high-school trust-funder living a decadent life alone in a vast house while her parents travel. Cairo seems infinitely bored with everything but her own fulsome, over-the-top writing. She briefly finds a kindred spirit in one of her teachers, Jonathan Miller, played by Marvel Cinematic Universe\/Peter Jackson\u2019s Hobbit movies\/Cornetto trilogy veteran Martin Freeman. Given how jaded they both are with everything else, and how quickly they fascinate each other, it\u2019s no surprise that this teacher-student relationship quickly goes wrong.<\/p>\n<div class=\"c-wide-block\">\n<div id=\"zcmuWq\">\n<div style=\"width: 100%;height: 0;padding-bottom: 56.25%\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Miller\u2019s Girl (2024) Official Trailer - Martin Freeman, Jenna Ortega\" width=\"640\" height=\"960\" style=\"width:640px;height:960px;\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vk2OJZHutBM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"YCmpka\">What is surprising, though, is how <em>Miller\u2019s Girl<\/em> just as quickly loses the plot, and loses everyone around Cairo in the effort to center the story on her. <\/p>\n<p id=\"zw0rnP\">A lot\u2019s been said lately about <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/culture\/2023\/11\/killers-of-the-flower-moon-avatar-oppenheimer-run-time-long-movies.html\">whether movies are getting longer on average<\/a>, and whether that\u2019s a problem for anyone, apart from the usual internet kvetchers, or theater owners who want to churn through showings faster. But where the tight 90-minute thriller still has significant appeal, <em>Miller\u2019s Girl<\/em>\u2019s scant 93 minutes make a strong argument for longer movies. In this case, it really could have used the extra run time to develop its characters. <\/p>\n<p id=\"VeItac\"><em>Miller\u2019s Girl<\/em> is a small story with just a few central characters, but most of them are broad, cartoonish types reminiscent of the first season of <em>Glee<\/em>. Cairo\u2019s best friend, Winnie (Gideon Adlon), is a flirtatious virgin who\u2019s a nonstop fountain of come-ons and sex talk, until she suddenly flips into a completely different mode halfway through the film. Her sharp left turn is much more justified than the one taken by Jon\u2019s wife, Beatrice (Dagmara Dominczyk): She starts out as an amiable workaholic who\u2019s three-quarters checked out of her marriage, then abruptly becomes a lurching alcoholic whose jabs at her husband are straight out of <em>Who\u2019s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"c-wide-block\">\n<figure class=\"e-image\">\n        <img alt=\"Jon Miller (Martin Freeman) and his teenage student Cairo Sweet (Jenna Ortega) stand outdoors on a veranda-style porch, talking with each other, in Miller\u2019s Girl\" data-mask-text=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/dulcipass.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Miller_s_Girl_8.jpg\" \/><br \/>\n      <cite>Photo: Zac Popik\/Lionsgate<\/cite><br \/>\n  <\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"Zf5wu9\">But the movie\u2019s biggest problem is the relationship between Jon and Cairo, which moves from a queasy, dangerous early connection to a third-act meltdown so abruptly that it feels like it\u2019s entirely missing the second act. It\u2019s hard to say how exactly Bartlett sees their relationship: Depending on the scene and whose point of view it\u2019s from, Jon comes across as an understandably lonely man who just admires his student\u2019s writing, or a schmuck making all his decisions below the waist. Cairo, for her part, veers back and forth between <em>Wild Things<\/em>-level schemer and an awkward, isolated teenager who isn\u2019t yet capable of seeing that she can\u2019t claim her teacher as a soulmate \u2014 at least, not if he has a scrap of moral fiber or sense of appropriateness in his body.<\/p>\n<p id=\"iMmqif\"><em>Miller\u2019s Girl<\/em> is a lush, even overripe movie, full of grandiloquent voiceover from Cairo\u2019s writing, alongside snippets of other characters\u2019 equally gushy work. (An excerpt from one of the short stories Cairo confidently offers Jon: \u201cSurvival and desire amalgamated, and turned an aphotic eye inward. I saw my expectations dismantled and dismembered by the harsh and starving dogs of reality, truths that sit in the vacuity of space like a hyper-giant star, burning to ash all elements too weak to withstand the awesome heat.\u201d) Cairo takes frequently banned author Henry Miller as a writing inspiration, clutching her copy of <em>Under the Roofs of Paris<\/em> as she navigates high school. Her admiration for his work shows clearly in her wordiness, her calculated ennui, and her determination to push the boundaries of censorship by turning her writing assignments into sexual fantasies.<\/p>\n<p id=\"A9KPN3\"><em>Miller\u2019s Girl<\/em>\u2019s visuals and production design are frequently dark and saturated with rich, heavy color, and Bartlett weaves in and out of fantasy elements to illustrate her points of view. It\u2019s compelling visual storytelling, but whether the narrative elements work for any given viewer will depend heavily on whether they find writing like the above evocative, or just pretentious and excruciating.<\/p>\n<div class=\"c-wide-block\">\n<figure class=\"e-image\">\n        <img alt=\"Cairo (Jenna Ortega) sits and smokes with a laptop on her lap and her legs folded up into a chair, surrounded by pillows, books, and a gauzy lace curtain in Miller\u2019s Girl\" data-mask-text=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/dulcipass.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Miller_s_Girl_13.jpg\" \/><br \/>\n      <cite>Image: Lionsgate<\/cite><br \/>\n  <\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"J1isFo\">What <em>Miller\u2019s Girl<\/em> does best \u2014 and what gives Ortega the chance to absolutely own this movie \u2014 is capture the particular era of adolescence where girls can easily swing back and forth between adulthood and childhood without warning. Ortega gets the chance here to play an outright predatory vamp and a giggling, shy schoolgirl without the sense that either one is a front or a put-on for Cairo. Her adult personality isn\u2019t fully formed yet, and while she\u2019s trying out identities the way she tries out words like \u201cvituperative\u201d in her writing, they\u2019re still all part of her \u2014 and they\u2019re all part of the reason Mr. Miller should know better than to engage with her as anything but a student.<\/p>\n<p id=\"Kw2bgl\">The adult characters similarly veer between personalities, though \u2014 Jon included. And they just seem inconsistent, bound to whatever the story needs in a given scene. The last act is rushed and forced, without the space it needs to give any of these characters their due, or give the audience any cue about how to take the leads and their relationship. Netflix\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/24006908\/netflix-movies-in-theaters-rebel-moon-killer-may-december\"><em>May December<\/em><\/a><em> <\/em>walked similar ground in navigating the later-life fallout of a sexual relationship between a teacher and her young student, but it explored the same ambiguities with nuance and significant thought. <em>Miller\u2019s Girl <\/em>just skims the surface, and settles for making that surface look visually sumptuous.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-end-para\" id=\"FekLyo\">None of which may matter to Ortega\u2019s fans, who get to see enough range from her here to make the excursion worthwhile. <em>Miller\u2019s Girl <\/em>is a luxuriant meal for her, a chance to play a variety of facets of the same girl while finding the connections between them. For everyone else, though, it\u2019s short rations, and more than a little underbaked. <\/p>\n<p id=\"kDaZ2g\"><small><em>Miller\u2019s Girl<\/em><\/small><small> is now streaming on Netflix, and can be rented or purchased on <\/small><a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/movies\/details?id=lOtaX-gjBR0.P\"><small>Google Play<\/small><\/a><small>, <\/small><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/video\/detail\/amzn1.dv.gti.f10b6d4f-2abf-44e7-8517-dba612ab4c95\"><small>Amazon Video<\/small><\/a><small>, and other digital platforms.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photo: Zac Popik\/Lionsgate No one here makes any sense, but it\u2019s going to look great on Jenna\u2019s showreel ...<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":326,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/dulcipass.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/dulcipass.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/dulcipass.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dulcipass.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dulcipass.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/dulcipass.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":330,"href":"http:\/\/dulcipass.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324\/revisions\/330"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dulcipass.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/dulcipass.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dulcipass.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dulcipass.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}