This movie gets kind of aggravating as it lumbers along mainly for the inane machinations of the daughter character. So hearing that (above) dialogue when it happened did let out a much needed laugh from me.
With how so very on the nose the villain had been the entire movie and never giving the girl any reason to trust him (yet she does anyway), just hearing the naive, gullible, and rebellious dumb dumb being called out for it was cathartic. It alleviated just enough of my frustration that I even chose to write this review.
My GRIPES:
-- 1. Big coincidence that the mom and daughter happen to move in right across the street from a neighbor that is somewhat involved with the same secret club killing people movie plot that the mother ends up investigating.
And that the she already had an interest in them beforehand (as revealed by the mural of pictures in her closet from their move-in day and that she bugged their home within only minutes of meeting them) ***
-- 2. Smiley tells the girl that SHE CAN get close to the club owners because she is NEW and they like her, but also that HE CAN'T because he is NEW so they don't trust him yet.... Okay? So SHE CAN because she is NEW, but HE CAN'T because he is NEW. And this reasoning somehow makes sense to her.
-- 3. Incompetent police threatens to arrest the victim who was drugged, rather than check the neighbor's phone for proof that pictures were taken.***
-- 4. Also once the daughter is aware that her mother is actually right in her investigation of the deaths she becomes even more neurotic, uncooperative, and horrible to her mother. Even conspiring against her at one point to inform her even more paranoid and conspiratorial masked love interest.
-- 5. The daughter attends these secret parties every single night and the mother is never curious about where she is? Nor thinks to follow her even once?
-- 6. The mother overhears her daughter secretly telling the bad guy she crushes on about her mother's meeting with a woman, and then after she is attacked and the woman is killed it NEVER occurs to her (or to anyone for that matter) the obvious connection there?! ***
-- 7. THEN the daughter invites the guy that just tried to kill her mom over for some 50 Shades of Grey time (still having not connected those dots).
-- 8. And the daughter's last hair-brain move at the end climax is just peak. Totally on brand with how she has been the whole movie. My nominee for the 2024 "Darwin Award".
*** I'm aware that some of these are recontextualized by surprise reveals toward the end. Still doesn't negate the initial impression on first watch. ***
And some big convenient coincidences around the neighbor's role in the film just really don't hold together on second watch once you're aware of everything.
I think it would've worked better if she wasn't a neighbor at all and didn't draw any interest in them until AFTER she took notice of the daughter at the club... and then she meets the mom... then bugs the house... then she talks cryptically on the phone to whomever about how "She'll work out perfectly."
That would've made the outcomes opportunistic rather than the "boy were we lucky y'all happen to move in where you did, when you did, how you did, and on the day right after an accident happened coincidentally where and how your husband died, and that you'd investigate it for us, and that you had a dumb young hot daughter who would most likely stumble her way into the very seedy club we wanted her to" way it is now.
Ultimately its very much like a Lifetime movie and with many of the usual tropes you've seen:
Mysterious offscreen deaths, over-stressed mother/wife, rebellious-just-cuz daughter, a nosey neighbor, red herrings, drugged beverages, many people going unconscious (and often), incompetent cops, mystery villain reveal, a climatic rundown of each of the villain's evildoings throughout the film, and the 'in a hurry to end the movie already' ending.
(Only missing are the 'someone wields a kitchen knife', 'the murdered the best friend', 'how about some tea', and 'you should get some rest' tropes).
With how so very on the nose the villain had been the entire movie and never giving the girl any reason to trust him (yet she does anyway), just hearing the naive, gullible, and rebellious dumb dumb being called out for it was cathartic. It alleviated just enough of my frustration that I even chose to write this review.
My GRIPES:
-- 1. Big coincidence that the mom and daughter happen to move in right across the street from a neighbor that is somewhat involved with the same secret club killing people movie plot that the mother ends up investigating.
And that the she already had an interest in them beforehand (as revealed by the mural of pictures in her closet from their move-in day and that she bugged their home within only minutes of meeting them) ***
-- 2. Smiley tells the girl that SHE CAN get close to the club owners because she is NEW and they like her, but also that HE CAN'T because he is NEW so they don't trust him yet.... Okay? So SHE CAN because she is NEW, but HE CAN'T because he is NEW. And this reasoning somehow makes sense to her.
-- 3. Incompetent police threatens to arrest the victim who was drugged, rather than check the neighbor's phone for proof that pictures were taken.***
-- 4. Also once the daughter is aware that her mother is actually right in her investigation of the deaths she becomes even more neurotic, uncooperative, and horrible to her mother. Even conspiring against her at one point to inform her even more paranoid and conspiratorial masked love interest.
-- 5. The daughter attends these secret parties every single night and the mother is never curious about where she is? Nor thinks to follow her even once?
-- 6. The mother overhears her daughter secretly telling the bad guy she crushes on about her mother's meeting with a woman, and then after she is attacked and the woman is killed it NEVER occurs to her (or to anyone for that matter) the obvious connection there?! ***
-- 7. THEN the daughter invites the guy that just tried to kill her mom over for some 50 Shades of Grey time (still having not connected those dots).
-- 8. And the daughter's last hair-brain move at the end climax is just peak. Totally on brand with how she has been the whole movie. My nominee for the 2024 "Darwin Award".
*** I'm aware that some of these are recontextualized by surprise reveals toward the end. Still doesn't negate the initial impression on first watch. ***
And some big convenient coincidences around the neighbor's role in the film just really don't hold together on second watch once you're aware of everything.
I think it would've worked better if she wasn't a neighbor at all and didn't draw any interest in them until AFTER she took notice of the daughter at the club... and then she meets the mom... then bugs the house... then she talks cryptically on the phone to whomever about how "She'll work out perfectly."
That would've made the outcomes opportunistic rather than the "boy were we lucky y'all happen to move in where you did, when you did, how you did, and on the day right after an accident happened coincidentally where and how your husband died, and that you'd investigate it for us, and that you had a dumb young hot daughter who would most likely stumble her way into the very seedy club we wanted her to" way it is now.
Ultimately its very much like a Lifetime movie and with many of the usual tropes you've seen:
Mysterious offscreen deaths, over-stressed mother/wife, rebellious-just-cuz daughter, a nosey neighbor, red herrings, drugged beverages, many people going unconscious (and often), incompetent cops, mystery villain reveal, a climatic rundown of each of the villain's evildoings throughout the film, and the 'in a hurry to end the movie already' ending.
(Only missing are the 'someone wields a kitchen knife', 'the murdered the best friend', 'how about some tea', and 'you should get some rest' tropes).
