Alex Ross Perry scored something of an indie critical success with his second feature, the savage satire of literary ambition Listen Up Philip. But while he employs some similar techniques and themes here – wordy dialogue, long scenes which prickle with social tension, relationships fragmenting – Queen of Earth is less satisfying. It displays some of the navel-gazing impulses of the mumblecore movement; it’s no surprise to see that mumble-originator Joe Swanberg serves as a producer.
Elisabeth Moss and Katherine Waterston star as Catherine and Virginia, two friends who realise that they have grown apart during a recuperative trip to Virginia’s father’s lake house. Perry favours lots of unforgiving extreme closeups of weeping faces which exaggerate already stagey performances to a near-operatic pitch. The score sounds like it was played on a xylophone made of nerve-endings and fingernails.
