Queen of Earth

Disturbing psychological study with Elisabeth Moss Dir: Alex Ross Perry 1hr 30mins (15)

This “haunting, affecting psychodrama” may be too intense for some tastes, but it is undoubtedly one of the “finest films” of the summer, said Kim Newman in Empire. Shocked by her father’s death and the recent end of a relationship, Catherine (Elisabeth Moss) takes refuge with her best friend Virginia (Katherine Waterston) at the latter’s isolated lakeside summer house. It soon becomes clear that there are old, unresolved resentments between the two women, and that Catherine is on the verge of a breakdown.

Stylistically a rather “mannered” film, Queen of Earth is carried by the “rich and subtle” performances of its leads, said Geoffrey Macnab in The Independent. There’s strong support from Patrick Fugit as an arrogant neighbour who takes pleasure in informing Catherine that her erratic behaviour is pure self-indulgence. This is a “pungent chamber piece” about a dysfunctional friendship, said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian. By shooting almost entirely in close-up, writerdirector Alex Ross Perry ramps up the claustrophobic tension to bursting point.

Moss is outstanding, said Stephen Farber in The Hollywood Reporter. Over the course of the film she traverses “an astonishing range of emotions”. In my view, Ross Perry’s previous offering, the acerbic comedy Listen Up Philip, was overpraised. But Queen of Earth is consistently “intriguing” as a portrait of a woman on the edge.