Director: Alex Ross Perry
On Mad Men, Elisabeth Moss played Peggy Olson as increasingly defensive and indignant as the years went on, transitioning from a plucky young upstart to a bonafide taskmistress. It wasn’t long before all her patience was sapped from her–minor offenses were quick to become major breaches. Queen of Earth suggests what Peggy might have looked like if she were clinically insane, if her self-destructiveness completely took hold and lead her to a series of bizarre feats of psychological violence. Director Alex Ross Perry is very consciously operating in the mode of art house greats before him (women-gone-mad pictures like Persona, Repulsion, and even Rosemary’s Baby being clear points of reference), using madness as a means of demonstrating incredible isolation and despair. It’s a claustrophobic undertaking at every step–from the setting of the lake house, to the insistence on close-ups, to the daily title cards that seem more oppressive than as a reflection of the approaching, supposedly liberating end. Similarly, Queen of Earth’s key scene involves a lengthy shot in which Banks and co-star Katherine Waterston share stories of past romances as the camera racks focus between them. It doesn’t play so much as a moment that demonstrates their bond, but one in which two women are at best playing a game of oneupmanship, if they have any consideration for what their companion is feeling at all. Unfortunately, the film might have worked better as pure parody, and Perry’s enthusiasm for this sort of pastiche seems more devout than righteous. As with Woody Allen’s Interiors, it is rewarding to see a great artist play outside of his comfort zone, but there is a sinking feeling that he has lost his identity along the way rather than succeeded in acclimating to a new mode of storytelling.
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