Luckiest Girl Alive

Film is an interesting blend.

A "boss girl" type film, the protagonist even has the typical sassy inner monologue.

However the movie has an incredibly nuanced portrayal of a woman who has suffered serious trauma.

Many films portray victims as weathered survivors.

This film shows the victim as extremely put-together and successful.

It's a take I haven't seen before, and it's definitely one that is good to see.

The movie uses two incredibly sensitive topics as plot devices, if the movie was any lesser, it would have trivilalized those topics.

But the unrelenting nature of the portrayals of those topics only adds to the movie to show what the protagonist has overcome.

My advice is to go into this movie with no expectation... in other words, stop reading the reviews! Lol! I think the lack of expectations makes this movie the masterpiece that it is. -- Luckiest Girl Alive, what a great movie!!! The third person dialogue really nudges this movie beyond great in my opinion. Couldn't have chosen a better actress for this role. Mila is amazing as always! The mystery of "what happened" is executed so well. Revealing small pieces of the puzzle without revealing the full plot was executed wonderfully. I truly wasn't sure what direction the movie was going to go in. The direction it did end up going was unexpected and dark, and it was done so well. Sadly it's very relatable being a young woman. The trauma she lives with and the person she turns herself into is exactly what survivors go through every day. And the "villain" in this movie, is so typical... I highly recommend this movie, and if you're able to watch it with a boyfriend or a brother, even better!

I cannot put my finger on what was wrong with this movie. The story was good. I am not sure where it went wrong. It could have been Mila's performance, the perfect rich unicorn boyfriend, the one dimensional characters or the editing. First of all, the movie could have been much shorter. Second of all, it failed to make me care much about Mila's character. I don't know why. She had a good story and I understood what she went through. I think it's how she acted, it was a bit off, one dimensional. Actually all the characters were one dimensional. It was annoying in a sense, same stereotypes and say exactly what you expect them to say. And the boyfriend was just so patient and perfect it makes one nauseous. It felt unrealistic. It's one of those movies, that I am not sure if I am happy I watched or not.

Knoll should stick to writing books, not screenplays. In the convoluted, incohesive and dragged out 113 minute runtime, the story is all over the place, with poorly placed timeline tidbits, and ridiculous and mostly unnecessary scenes and dialogue.

The entire film felt one hour too long and failed to maintain any fluidity to the sensitive nature of its content. It lacked the consistency, depth and tone to be a suspenseful narrative, and instead, chose pretentious shock value trauma in a misguided self-serving fantasy theme.

And that's too bad, because the casting and performances were spot-on, especially Kunis who shined. Had any seasoned filmmaker made some much needed edits, they would've have gone a long way to make this a great watch, instead of getting impatient, frustrated and uninterested in what was going to happen next in the bender-mixed writing and directing. It's a generous 6/10 mainly for the performances.

The movie starts slowly as we get to know Ani, through her actions, inner monologue, and a series of flashbacks.

We get hints that she has suffered a terrible trauma while at an expensive high school, but has done her best to push all of the trauma down.

Her resulting life is hollow, obsessed with status, and her writing focused on sexualizing every topic.

That Ani is finally forced to confront her trauma, to let it ooze out of the dark corners where she's repressed it, is predictable. The story, however, is not nor is her reaction.

Not to give anything away, but the movie confronts a serious, important subject and gets better as it moves along.

Acting and editing are highlights. Visuals, however, are rather dull.

(This, however, may be on point as well given how the character lives life at a distance every day since high school.)

I'm glad I didn't go to see this in a theater, but it's a solid enough movie to screen on Netflix, with a follow up conversation in your friend-group almost mandatory.