The writer and actress Eva Victor (from TV\u2019s Billions) makes her directorial debut with this warm, witty and unflinching portrait of a life upended by sexual assault. Victor takes starring duties too as an earnest academic called Agnes who works at a top-tier New England university and lives in a secluded house in a nearby woods. The building, like a modest version of the Bates homestead in Psycho, is initially captured in ominous, shadow-filled, horror movie frames. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s an effective opening gesture from Victor, hinting at the dread that dwells in Agnes, even as she giggles and spars with newly arrived bestie Lydie (a classy Naomi Ackie<\/a>). The pair joke about sex and boys and their heady school days, and they read books and fall asleep in front of 12 Angry Men. The tone is very Fleabag with a dash of Greta Gerwig\u2019s Frances Ha. <\/p>\n \u2022 Naomi Ackie: \u2018After Whitney, I never wanted to play a real person again\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n Soon, however, the film flashes back four years with the sinister title heading \u201cThe Year with the Very Bad Thing\u201d and we meet Agnes and Lydie as guileless undergraduates and hardworking students of attentive yet slyly conceited Professor Decker (Louis Cancelmi). He is clearly focused on Agnes. Victor invests every early exchange between them with a sickening awareness of his insidious intentions and what\u2019s to come. <\/p>\n The assault scene is carefully done yet devastating (a long shot, a closed door, horrific implications behind it) and the drama that follows addresses existential issues about what Decker\u2019s abuse has done to Agnes\u2019s sense of self. One of Decker\u2019s greatest crimes, Agnes later decides, is that he denied her the right to see herself as \u201ca person who lives and breathes and thinks for herself\u201d. All this and, incredibly, jokes too. They\u2019re not side-splitters, of course. But funny enough and, like the rest of the film, perfectly judged. \u2022 Read more film reviews, guides about what to watch and interviews<\/a><\/p>\n Two-for-one cinema tickets at Everyman<\/p>\n Times+ members can enjoy two-for-one cinema tickets at Everyman each Wednesday. Visit thetimes.com\/timesplus<\/a> to find out more.<\/p>\n Which films have you enjoyed at the cinema recently? Let us know in the comments and follow @timesculture<\/a> to read the latest reviews<\/p>\n
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15, 103min
In cinemas<\/p>\n