stark rise as Gen Z's goth-glam princess takes a pointless, awkward turn in 鈥淢iller鈥檚 Girl,鈥� a new romantic horror movie about cerebral people that's simply tiresome.
Written and directed by newcomer Jade Halley Bartlett, the movie retells the classic story of a teenage girl smitten by her older teacher and a tumble into seduction. It wants to be close to Vladimir Nabokov, but it's more 鈥淒on't Stand So Close to Me鈥� by The Police.
Ortega stars as 18-year-old Tennessee student Cairo Sweet, a precocious and wealthy young lady with a tragic, icy cool personality. 鈥淟iterature is my solace in the solitude and writing is my only means of escape,鈥� she says, like most 18-year-olds do.
Sweet is the kind of student who reads the long list of suggested texts before school even starts and devours 鈥淔innegans Wake鈥� of her own volition. She has a 4.6 GPA and 鈥渃rippling ennui." She also dresses like circa 鈥溾�aby One More Time.鈥�
Sweet latches onto unmoored literature teacher Jonathan Miller, a former writer 鈥� author of 鈥淎postrophes and Ampersands: Six Abysmally Romantic Short Stories鈥� 鈥� who hasn't put pen to paper since he got married and started teaching. He's played by a hangdog wonderfully anguished and pained.
鈥淵ou鈥檙e not a writer,鈥� his wife baits him. 鈥淵ou chose to be a teacher. Why would I see you as anything else?鈥� She's played by Dagmara Domi艅czyk, a half-drawn woman who is constantly working, prickly and hurtful. To prove that she's wise, she uses words like 鈥渧ituperation.鈥�
Our unhappy Miller begins spending more and more time with his prize student, awakened by her writing skills and her apparent interest in him. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e exceptionally talented,鈥� he tells her. Her hunger for approval almost bursts through the screen.
They sit around and quote memorized passages of each others' work to the other. 鈥淵ou do see me and I see you,鈥� she tells him. There are as many red flags waving as during hurricane season.
鈥淭eenage girls are dangerous,鈥� his wife says. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e full of emotional violence and vituperation. I hope you know what you鈥檙e doing.鈥� He doesn't.
Ortega mimics much of her chilly in the role, undercurrents of savagery popping up now and again through the shivering stillness. There's no warmth here. Mr. Miller is being seduced by a copy of
Fact and fantasy get confused between these two. Are they really lovers? Or might it all be in her head? Bartlett coyly sidesteps the depth of their relationship to leave you hanging until the end 鈥� and so whatever the filmmaker is trying to say is left hanging, too. Maybe something about the confusing lines of power, or maybe that writers are really awful people?
Two other characters 鈥� as another teacher and as Sweet's vampy, lollipop-licking friend 鈥� are genuinely much more interesting and so unbalance the main would-be couple.
Bartlett lets the first half drag way too long, establishing over and over the characters' plight, getting lost in the forest mist that Sweet keeps emerging from, bizarrely and with no subtlety. The second half is agonizing 鈥� all arguments and tears. Taken together, this movie might be less fun than taking the SATs.
It鈥檚 notable that Bartlett's airless script, which landed among the top unproduced screenplays in 2016, and feels wholly out of its time in 2024. Do we really need a spiteful Lolita threatening to lob grenades into her rivals' lives and careers? Bartlett seems to have lots to say at the beginning about art and passion, but ends with nothing other than seemingly not to believe women. That couldn't have been her intention.
鈥淢iller's Girl,鈥� a Lionsgate release that hits theaters Friday, is rated R for 鈥渟exual content, language throughout, some teen smoking and drinking.鈥� Running time: 93 minutes. One star out of four.
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MPAA definition of R: Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
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Mark Kennedy is at
Mark Kennedy, The Associated Press
