MIFF NOTES: Queen of Earth (2015, Dir. Alex Ross Perry)

Alex Ross Perry's Queen of Earth is the second film this year to pull in a luscious retro look for the titles and to go similarly retro on the music throughout, but it is the lesser of the two films in terms of overall effect. Indeed, Perry's overt use of music to define mood, though often effective, is almost preposterously deliberate; it recasts his mundane exploration of friendship, support and mental disintegration into a twisted psychological thriller but the measured juxtapositioning more often than not elicits eyebrow-raising over gut response.

Polish off the obscuring musical cues and Queen of Earth reads like a spoilt entitlement rag. Two friends, Catherine and Virginia (Elisabeth Moss and Katherine Waterston) retreat a mountain lake holiday home at two disparate points in their friendship. The first sees Catherine conjoined with her boyfriend and judging on Virginia, the second (post father death and relationship break-up) sees the roles reversed, with a little mental illness thrown in for good measure.

Perry spices up the narrative with some clever time-shifting, playing off the mirror-image power structures at play across both visits. The two spaces interact as parallel universes, with characters seemingly reacting across the edits, which adds another level of ominousness to the whole affair. It doesn't strictly go anywhere though. While Perry's film exists as an indictment of both its characters (it is slight but present), its primary focus eventually settles on Catherine's deteriorating state of mind. Moss' performance is strong but her descent is anything but gradual, she crumbles over just a few scenes. Some more directorial control may have tempered the slightly ridiculous effect.

While Queen of Earth is marvelously put together, in the end the red-herring-construction that gives it reason, is dramatically unsatisfying and ultimately rather monotonous. It is well worth sitting through, though; the final credit sequence is a thing of real beauty.

★★☆

Queen of Earth screened at the Melbourne International Film Festival 2015.