Throughout September I will be raiding my collection of favourite movies to review one a day, with a focus on overlooked and underappreciated films.
Where to find it: Disney+
Length: 80 minutes
Synopsis: Hyper-empathy horror play
Recommendation rating: 4/5
What I like about it: themes, dialogue, acting, ending
What I don’t like about it: sometimes cartoonish villains
Review:
Salma Hayek plays Beatriz, a Mexican-American immigrant and alternative medicine practitioner, who finds herself stuck at her rich client’s mansion during a business dinner. Beatriz feels empathy very deeply, her best friend is a goat who has recently been senselessly murdered. The people she is stuck at dinner with barely feel anything at all. It plays out very tense as we watch Beatriz’s feelings get hurt dozens of times, only occasionally giving voice to her opinions. Of course it builds to a large argument in which Beatriz is ‘hysterical’ and the rich people continue with their disgusting lives.
Mike White, one of my most favourite creatives, wrote this dialogue-heavy play which is an absolute horror movie to those of us who share Beatriz’s hyperempathy. I am very appreciative to have media which I feel explains something ineffable about myself and the ending was sadly very realistic. It means a lot to me.
Content notes (may contain spoilers): violence, animal rights / meat, suicide