Edition #028: The Perfection

You know what you have to do

The Perfection (2018) is a straight-to-Netflix thriller that defies both explanation and expectation. With smart performances by Allison Williams and Logan Browning, The Perfection is a movie that boldly embraces the absurd, teetering on the edge of the dumpster without ever fully diving in.

Let’s be clear: the plot is trash, the twists are trash, and the premise is almost entirely trivial. But the entertainment value is there. This 90-minute (on the dot) movie is ridiculously entertaining. And we all know that’s what actually matters.

I’d watch Allison Williams kiss and kill any day, and somehow, this movie makes its ridiculousness work. Because, really, if any movie has the right to be a little awful and a little incredible in its awfulness, wouldn’t it be one that rejects Perfection?

What’s the deal?

Charlotte (Allison Williams) is a former cello prodigy who crosses paths with Lizzie (Logan Browning), a rising star in the cello world. The two hit it off. Charlotte drugs Lizzie, manipulates her into cutting off her own arm (?!), and blames it all on... bugs. In China.

Lizzie, furious, tells their cello mentor (Anton) what happened. But he’s not helpful. So she has to tase and kidnap Charlotte, who then confesses that she did it because she was trying to protect Lizzie from Anton’s cello sex cult!

The film crescendos into an over-the-top finale where Charlotte loses her own arm, the two sew Anton’s mouth and eyes together and cut off all his limbs, and then perform a sapphic cello duet together — with one arm each.

I mean, wow. That’s cinema.

I can’t stop thinking about...

As a writer, I spend a lot of time thinking about craft. What makes a plot twist satisfying or unsatisfying? When does a twist feel genius, and when does it feel like it was dreamed up by someone with one brain cell and zero shame?

The Perfection pulls off something unique: it makes its twists so dumb, so outlandish, that they circle back around to being great. (See: final scene from 1:30 onwards below)

Normally, what ruins a twist is when new information is introduced out of nowhere, with no foreshadowing. This movie? It rewinds time to retcon the foreshadowing after the twist has already landed.

It’s purposefully un-craftful. It’s excessive. It’s possibly hilarious.

As a writing mentor once told me: a story doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be interesting.

And while this movie is far from perfect, its certainly interesting.

Don’t you think?
Horrorshow Jane