"Queen of the Earth": Psychological Killing in the Quiet House

Alex Ross Perry is a new generation director of the New York independent circle, born in 1984, from Philadelphia. His film gave me a sense of nostalgia when it came up, the clear film grain, and the way the title and subtitles appeared, as if to pay tribute to the 70s film. In the bright sunshine by Virginia Lake, we saw a pair of best friends since high school, Catherine (Elizabeth Moss) and Ginny (Katherine Waterston). Catherine is in some kind of emotional crisis, as if it came from the death of her father (possibly suicide). The director focuses on the most authentic dialogue between the characters, which is laid out backwards in units of a day. At first, the dialogue between the characters appeared calm and quiet. After that, Catherine began to feel frizzy because of some small things that people said in the chat. Later, this best friend began to recall the fond memories of coming to Virginia on vacation the previous year, and the relationship between the two ladies tended to ease. However, Ginny's boyfriend came, and the man who had a clear love, hatred, and even abusive words finally aroused Catherine's anger, and the relationship between the characters gradually deteriorated.
Really, for ordinary audiences, this movie is really a test of everyone's stamina, because the movie records only life itself. However, the tension of this movie is enough to make people feel secretly refreshed. When the movie often changes the topic, the paranoid woman begins to challenge the world. In my opinion, what really propped up the whole film was the wonderful performance and the weird atmosphere brought out by photography and music.
If the director gives an actor a close-up shot of up to 30 seconds, that is the biggest test of the actor's acting skills. Anne Hathaway was once in "Les Miserables", in the close-up, she achieved her tragic extreme and won the Oscar for Best Actress. Elizabeth Moss in this film also played a woman whose psychological defenses had completely collapsed to a level of horror. The director twice pointed the camera at her dark yellow and haggard face for a long time, and captured it with two long close-up shots. Changes in facial expressions and tension in lines. Just like the "Voice of the Village" said in the full score film review: a face is sometimes enough to determine a movie. This reminds me of the early film theorist Bela Balaz’s interpretation of close-ups and performances in "Faces of Humans" and "Close-ups". He believes that facial expressions in movies give a new space to film art. This kind of space is no longer limited by time and space. In this movie, the information revealed in Elizabeth Moss' eyes is more than the information laid out in the dialogue.
In addition, as a psychological thriller, the atmosphere of this movie is very good. There are few people and quiet, as if the characters are surrounded by a lake in an isolated island. This kind of trapped beasts releases high enough atmospheric pressure to make the audience feel asphyxia. The symbol of lake water is also used in Starr's melodrama, and this visual symbol often represents mystery. The music of the film is also extremely concise, with repetitive melody, which highlights the phrase "quiet is like a mystery" in the film that Moss said. This melody that plucks the heartstrings makes people tremble.
It does not have a solid script, it does not have a complete character and story. Of course, the director doesn't seem to want a solid script. He only wants the audience to face their fears, to visualize the dialogue between a few people in the lakeside cottage, and to reveal who is driving the hysterical woman to a desperate situation. From this point, this is a successful naturalistic psychological suspense drama. It allows us to see that human speech is sometimes as dangerous as a bayonet. If you are not careful, a single sentence will penetrate the other's heart.

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