More than 20 years have passed since the devastating Columbine high school tragedy that shook the entire world. Hollywood has discovered in them a new setting for movies that deal with residual high school trauma, even though these terrible occurrences continue to occur to the point of ubiquity and an entire generation of children has grown up in their wake. There seems to be an opportunistic movie like “The Desperate Hour” for every kind, nuanced movie like “The Fallout.”
Unfortunately, the most recent of these movies, “Luckiest Girl Alive,” belongs to the latter group. The film, which is based on Jessica Knoll’s novel of the same name and for which she also served as screenwriter, exploits rape trauma in the name of girl boss feminism and dramatizes a school massacre in horrible taste.
The focus of the movie, which has a tone eerily similar to “Gone Girl,” focuses on the seemingly ideal life of Ani (Mila Kunis), a writer for the glitzy women’s publication The Woman’s Bible. All she truly wants is a job at the New York Times Magazine so she can be “someone people can respect,” despite the fact that she has written “1,500 stories about how to give a blow job.” Ani is engaged to Luke, an old-money scion who serves more as a checkbox for Ani’s objective of undeniable social validity than anything else (Finn Wittrock, given nothing to do).
Her drive to become the richest person in the world starts from her high school years. Ani, formerly known as Tiff (Chiara Aurelia), a scholarship student at a prestigious prep school in Philadelphia, is a survivor of the “deadliest private school massacre in U.S. history.” The fact that this massacre occurred in 1999 (the same year as Columbine) and the film’s identification of the perpetrators are two of many shockingly nasty choices it makes. This is notable because the entire thing is primarily comprised of tasteless choices.
We learn that one of the survivors, who is now a gun reform activist, claims that Ani was involved in the shooting through flashbacks and Ani’s narration, which is haphazardly used throughout as her cynical inner thoughts, an interview for a documentary, and the copy for a piece she writes during the film’s denouement. However, this same survivor was also one of three classmates who gang-raped Ani at a school dance after party just weeks before Ani wants to reach the top of the social food chain so she can tell her side of the story and win the whole he-said-she-said thing.
Aurelia does a good job of portraying Ani’s anguish and resistance during the rape, uncertainty just after, and eventual unwillingness to report due to internalized shame, despite the graphic nature of the material and Mike Barker’s severe blocking of the rape sequence. If only there had been more potential for nuance in the older Ani played Kunis. Instead, her PTSD is depicted as being exhibited by clumsy dreams of blood, stabbing her fiance (whose affluent social standing constantly reminds her of her abusers), and her venomous inner thoughts.
The deeds of Ani’s mother Dina (Connie Britton), which are gradually revealed through the flashbacks, have also caused her to be appropriately upset. But the majority of her outrage is directed towards her mother’s lower social standing. Although Ani tells her wealthy friends that her mother shops at T.J. Maxx, despite the fact that her wedding gown is from Saks Fifth Avenue (the one on Fifth Avenue!). Even the movie can’t help but make fun of Dina as she tries to fit into the upper class world her daughter is now a part of by giving her lines about “Say Yes to the Dress” and terribly pronounciated Italian in addition to absurdly high shoes.
Even as a teenager, Ani’s striver’s attitude and the financial position of her mother are never far from her mind. Dina’s motivation for enrolling her daughter in a private school in the first place was to put her in contact with affluent men. Dina accuses Ani of violating her drinking policy when this strategy resulted in her assault. It is obvious that Ani learned as she matured that until she levels the playing field, privileged males would get away with whatever they want to do. Instead of a critique of class when there may have been one, there is still an aspiration to belong to the elites. As though only wealthy men are capable of acting badly.
Additionally, it’s never made clear what Ani planned to write before taking this “skanky” beat at this women’s magazine, according to her supervisor LoLo (Jennifer Beals). Her ardent desire to write for a venerable publication like the New York Times stems from the same motivation as her want to wed into a revered family so that others will recognize that they didn’t just “have money, they came from money.” Once more, there is a missed chance to fully investigate class and power dynamics as well as gender dynamics in the media sector.
After being absent for the majority of the movie, Beals makes an appearance and gives Ani a motivational speech about “authenticity” and the value of exposing everyone in her life who didn’t support her when she was a teenager. Her decision to finally give her side of the tale in her own words is prompted by this. It’s at this point that you understand “Luckiest Girl Alive” has used both school shootings and rape trauma for a self-actualization narrative. In the end, Ani finds meaning not in the release of her suppressed emotions through this writing, but in the shallow success of viral popularity.
Additionally, it’s never made clear what Ani planned to write before taking this “skanky” beat at this women’s magazine, according to her supervisor LoLo (Jennifer Beals). Her ardent desire to write for a venerable publication like the New York Times stems from the same motivation as her want to wed into a revered family so that others will recognize that they didn’t just “have money, they came from money.” Once more, there is a missed chance to fully investigate class and power dynamics as well as gender dynamics in the media sector.
After being absent for the majority of the movie, Beals makes an appearance and gives Ani a motivational speech about “authenticity” and the value of exposing everyone in her life who didn’t support her when she was a teenager. Her decision to finally give her side of the tale in her own words is prompted by this. It’s at this point that you understand “Luckiest Girl Alive” has used both school shootings and rape trauma for a self-actualization narrative. In the end, Ani finds meaning not in the release of her suppressed emotions through this writing, but in the shallow success of viral popularity.
Additionally, it’s never made clear what Ani planned to write before taking this “skanky” beat at this women’s magazine, according to her supervisor LoLo (Jennifer Beals). Her ardent desire to write for a venerable publication like the New York Times stems from the same motivation as her want to wed into a revered family so that others will recognize that they didn’t just “have money, they came from money.” Once more, there is a missed chance to fully investigate class and power dynamics as well as gender dynamics in the media sector.
After being absent for majority of the movie, Beals makes an appearance and gives Ani a motivational speech about “authenticity” and the value of exposing everyone in her life who didn’t support her when she was a teenager. Her decision to finally give her side of the tale in her own words is prompted by this. It’s at this point that you understand “Luckiest Girl Alive” has used both school shootings and rape trauma for a self-actualization narrative. In the end, Ani finds meaning not in the release of her suppressed emotions through this writing, but in the shallow success of viral popularity.
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