Film Review: Elisabeth Moss Reigns Supreme in ‘Queen of Earth’

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Average: 5 (1 vote)

CHICAGO – Elisabeth Moss is the ‘Actor of Her Generation.’ She is a true chameleon, and can anchor a lead role while still expressing a twitch of consequence. The subject is depression in “Queen of Earth,” and writer/director Alex Ross Perry is able to honestly portray it through Moss.

HollywoodChicago.com Oscarman rating: 4.5/5.0
Rating: 4.5/5.0

The setting is a lake house, which gives the heavy subject a simplicity, and allows the actors to use the environment as a stage – they continue to confront each other in that space, despite the inherent distance that grows between them. There is an immediate empathy towards Moss, as the audience is privy to a her her boyfriend leaving her in a stunning scene that opens the film. As she escapes to her best friend’s lake cabin, she cannot deal with the simplest elements of maintaining life, and although any getaway vacation can be defined as therapeutic, nobody in the vicinity of the cabin has a clue on how to reach out to a depressed person, who doesn’t want to be reached. Elisabeth Moss magnificently portrays that downturned subtlety, and the story never allows her to come to terms with it.

Catherine (Elisabeth Moss) has experienced the double whammy of her father dying – he was a known artist who suffered from severe depression – and her boyfriend James (Kentucker Audley) leaving her. She seeks solace with her best friend Virginia (Katherine Waterston) by escaping to the lake house Virginia’s parents own. As the long week ticks by, it becomes apparent that Catherine is suffering the same fate as her father.

Flashbacks tell the story incompletely, but reveal that exactly one year before the circumstance was a bit cleaner – Catherine was still with the boyfriend who had yet to dump her, and Virginia was getting over a lost love of her own. The present situation is also complicated by a neighbor, Rich (Patrick Fugit), who Virginia is using as a friend with benefits, and who insists on pricking the expanding balloon of Catherine’s lost soul.

”Queen of Earth” is in select theaters, including Chicago, and is available for digital download. See local listings for theaters, show times and download providers. Featuring Elisabeth Moss, Katherine Waterston, Patrick Fugit, Kentucker Audley and Craig Butta. Written and directed by Alex Ross Perry. Not Rated.

StarContinue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of “Queen of Earth”

Elisabeth Moss
Catherine (Elisabeth Moss) is Challenged in ‘Queen of Earth’
Photo credit: IFC Films

StarContinue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of “Queen of Earth”

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