If you have seen the trailer for The Perfection, you are probably pretty intrigued. You would also probably be wildly thrown off when you watch the actual movie. (If you haven’t, then trust me when I tell you to watch it first. It definitely adds to the experience and I’ll come to that later.)
When you watch the film, you would be wondering which genre it is. Is it an erotic thriller, a psychological thriller, a contagion film, a revenge movie, a gory horror? Maybe it’s all of the above, and that’s the beauty of this film. The skilful swapping of sub-genres is one of the major reasons this film is making such a noise.
Directed by Richard Shepard and written by Shepard, Eric C. Charmelo and Nicole Snyder, The Perfection is a film about trauma, jealousy and the trap of perfectionism. Allison Williams stars as Charlotte, to whom we’re introduced in small, disjointed moments and memories: her mother on her death bed; at age 14, packed up and leaving a stately home with her cello in tow, glimpsing the new girl taking her place; a practiced phone call, her voice carefully modulating a casual tone, asking her former cello teacher to meet up.
Charlotte makes her way to Shanghai to visit the teacher, Anton (Steven Weber), and his wife, Paloma (Alaina Huffman), at a contest for placement at Bachoff, the elite cello school she once attended. At the competition, Charlotte encounters a star cellist, Lizzie (Logan Browning), who has the fame and accolades she had to sacrifice when her mother got sick. The two women collide, instantly understanding each other and what they went through as dedicated elite cellists. The tension between them is palpable – the movie goes through a tornado from this point, and everything ends up in a very dark and demented place. The shocking twists and turns sweep the footing right out from under you, and the director carefully scrolls back and forth in time to reveal what was previously hidden.
After her brilliant benevolently brutal performance in Get Out, and now with The Perfection, where Williams continually shifts between victim and villain, it’s obvious that the Girls actress has an incredibly daring taste when it comes to her film roles. What makes her so effective in these complex roles is the way that Williams’ preppy, pleasant-seeming demeanour can shape-shift between sinister or sweet, depending on the context.
While Williams’ Charlotte is perfection personified (or so it seems), Browning’s Lizzie is a frank and feisty character. These two lead women complement each other and they make a good pair. Weber is also commendable as their sophisticated and demanding cello instructor.
From left: Lizzie (Logan Browning) and Charlotte (Allison Williams) during a duel cello performance The trailer for The Perfection made it out to be something it was decidedly not: a bug infestation freak-out picture. It made heavy use of the scene when stranded on the side of the road, Lizzie screams at Charlotte about the bugs crawling inside of her arm. Beyond that, we’re not given much information as to what the film is about, besides being informed that Charlotte is the kind of person who’s always prepared in case a meat cleaver might come in handy (wait, what?).
Netflix was pretty cautious about not giving anything away in the trailer, which makes sense. It sets a benchmark of how horror movie trailers should be made. It should not give away the entire plotline or not even the best moments, but it should arouse the curiosity or interest and provide misdirection to reach new heights of unpredictability.
The Perfection is Shepard’s eighth feature film and shows him working in a vastly different arena than his indie comedies of the ’90s or light crime capers The Matador and Dom Hemingway. A veteran of episodic TV (Ugly Betty, Girls), Shepard brings a crisp, polished style deceives us about the hairpin corner-like twists that are about to unfold. Like the leading lady Williams, the exterior of The Perfection is flawless, covering up the darkness that lies beneath. The wild ride in store is both supremely disturbing and unpredictable. But rendered with such skill, it’s utterly perfect.
The Film Reel 