I like Eggers more when his world-building is taking place in a slightly more contained context.
Yes, this film is carefully crafted and painstakingly researched and with some great performances. But it did feel as if he tipped us into deep end a bit too hastily, almost as if the film is too eager to show off all the work. A bit more mystery, a bit more time taken to slowly build the pathos and dread would have been more…
Too often serial killer stories fawn on the crafty pathos of their predatory men in contrast to that of their “helpless” and “vulnerable” and “innocent” victims. This film digs instead into the pathos of smart, independent and crafty women living in a misogynistic culture, a culture that fails to protect them, that encourages bad and sexist male behaviour. In that context is it any wonder a predator could go repeatedly unquestioned and unchecked, for so many years? This was terrifying,…
