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It’s been more than two decades since the deadly Columbine high school shooting that shook the world. While these traumatic events continue to happen to the point of ubiquity and a whole generation of kids have grown up in their wake, Hollywood has found in them a new setting for films that deal with lingering high school trauma. It seems for every compassionate, nuanced film like “ The Fallout ,” there’s something exploitative like “ The Desperate Hour .” 

Unfortunately, “Luckiest Girl Alive,” the latest of these films falls in that latter category. Based on the book of the same name by Jessica Knoll , who also serves as screenwriter, the movie not only dramatizes a school shooting in poor taste, it has the gall to use one as the backdrop while it also exploits rape trauma in the name of girl boss feminism.

With a tone ripped directly from “ Gone Girl ,” the film centers on the seemingly perfect life of Ani ( Mila Kunis ), a writer for a glossy women’s magazine named The Woman’s Bible. She’s written “1,500 stories about how to give a blow job” but all she really wants is a job at the New York Times Magazine so she can be “someone people can respect.” Ani is engaged to an old money scion named Luke ( Finn Wittrock , given nothing to do), who is more of a box to check towards Ani’s goal of unquestionable social legitimacy than anything else. 

Her desire to be the most uncontestable rich person stems from her high school days. A scholarship kid at an elite prep school in Philadelphia, Ani, then known as Tiff ( Chiara Aurelia ), is a survivor of the “deadliest private school shooting in U.S. history.” That this shooting took place in 1999 (the same year as Columbine) and the film’s revelation of who the perpetrators were is one of many incredibly tasteless decisions it makes, which is quite a distinction as the whole thing is mostly made up of tasteless decisions. 

Through flashbacks and Ani’s narration (which is haphazardly deployed throughout as her cynical inner thoughts, an interview for a documentary, and the copy for a piece she writes during the film’s denouement), we learn that one of the survivors, now a gun reform activist, claims that Ani was in on the shooting—but also that this same survivor was one of three classmates who gang-raped Ani at a school dance after party just weeks before the shooting. In order to win the he-said-she-said of it all, Ani aims to climb the top of the social ladder, and then share her side of the story.

Despite the luridness of the material and Mike Barker ’s brutal blocking of the rape sequence, Aurelia does a fine job in showing Ani’s pain and resistance during, confusion immediately after, and later hesitation to report due to internalized shame. If only the older Ani played Kunis were given room for as much nuance. Instead, her PTSD is shown as manifesting through hamfisted visions of blood, of stabbing her fiance (whose elite social status continually reminds her of her rapists), and her vitriolic inner thoughts. 

Ani is also, rightfully, angry at her mother Dina ( Connie Britton ) over actions slowly revealed through the flashbacks. However, this anger manifests mostly in jabs at her mother’s lower social class. Ani’s wedding dress is from Saks 5th Avenue (the one on 5th Avenue!), but she makes it clear to her rich friends that her mother shops at T.J. Maxx. Even the film can’t help but poke fun at Dina as she struggles to fit into the upper echelon world her daughter now inhabits, saddling her with comically high heels and lines about “Say Yes to the Dress” and poorly pronounced Italian. 

Her mother’s financial situation is always in the back of Ani’s mind even as a teen, as is her striver’s spirit. Dina’s reasoning for her daughter to attend a private school in the first place was to get her in the room with rich men. When this plan led to her assault, Dina places the blame on Ani for breaking her rules about alcohol. It’s clear the lesson Ani brought into her adulthood is that privileged men will do what they want and get away scot-free, unless she evens the playing field. Where there could have been a critique of class, there is instead still an aspirational desire to be one of the elites. As if only rich men are capable of bad behavior. 

It’s also never clear exactly what kind of writer Ani wanted to be before writing “skanky” stuff, as her boss LoLo ( Jennifer Beals ) calls her beat, at this women’s magazine. Her striving desire to have her writing in an old establishment like the New York Times comes from the same place as wanting to marry into an old family so that people know they don’t just “have money, they came from money.” Again, there's a missed opportunity to really explore class and power dynamics, but also to explore gender dynamics in the media world beyond a surface level. 

After being sidelined for most of the film, Beals returns and gives Ani a pep talk about “authenticity” and the importance of exposing everyone in her life that didn’t help her as a teenager. This pushes her to finally tell her side of the story in her own words. Ordinarily this moment in a film would feel triumphant, but it’s here you realize “Luckiest Girl Alive” has exploited both school shootings and rape trauma for a self-actualization narrative that ultimately ends with Ani finding value not in the release of her repressed emotions through this writing, but in the shallow achievement of viral fame.

Ani was a victim, sure, but so were all the kids whose lives were lost during the shooting, or were altered forever by the trauma of its aftermath. But the film is so minutely concerned with Ani’s trauma only that it nearly says the deaths of the other kids was justified (it surely relishes in showing their deaths in barbaric detail). The very last scene then positions the trauma of rape victims and those afflicted by gun violence as being in competition with each other for the nation’s attention and actionable change.  

A flashback to a classroom scene where Ani’s sympathetic English teach Mr. Larson (an underused Scoot McNairy ) compliments her analysis of Holden Caulfield as an unreliable narrator suggests the filmmakers want us to view Ani as equally unreliable, having centered herself into this narrative. Does this then mean the film’s narrow viewpoint of competing traumas is solely because it’s presented the events from Ani’s warped point of view? Perhaps, but it doesn’t make its use of a school shooting as a background for her personal journey any less callous. 

On Netflix today.

Marya E. Gates

Marya E. Gates is a freelance film and culture writer based in Los Angeles and Chicago. She studied Comparative Literature at U.C. Berkeley, and also has an overpriced and underused MFA in Film Production. Other bylines include Moviefone, The Playlist, Crooked Marquee, Nerdist, and Vulture. 

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Film credits.

Luckiest Girl Alive (2022)

Rated R for violent content, rape, sexual material, language throughout and teen substance use.

113 minutes

Mila Kunis as Ani FaNelli

Finn Wittrock as Luke Harrison

Scoot McNairy as Andrew Larson

Chiara Aurelia as Young Ani

Thomas Barbusca as Arthur Finnerman

Justine Lupe as Nell Rutherford

Alexandra Beaton as Hilary Hitchinson

Connie Britton as Dina

Gage Munroe as Peyton Powell

Alexandra Beaton as Hilary Hutchinson

Nicole Huff as Olivia Kaplan

• Mike Barker

Writer (novel)

• Jessica Knoll

Cinematographer

• Colin Watkinson
• Nancy Richardson
• Linda Perry

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‘Luckiest Girl Alive’ Review: Lean In, to Outrage

Mila Kunis plays a successful career woman who faces a horrific incident from her past in this drama based on the novel by Jessica Knoll.

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By Amy Nicholson

To become the “Luckiest Girl Alive,” a title this dramedy shellacs with sarcasm, a self-loathing magazine writer named Ani (Mila Kunis) has achieved a trifecta of status symbols: a prestigious education (acquired via scholarships), a slim body (acquired via an eating disorder), and a posh fiancé (acquired via emotional suppression). Marriage to blue-blooded Luke Harrison IV (Finn Wittrock) will cement her transformation from teenage pushover TifAni FaNelli (played in flashbacks by Chiara Aurelia) to her intimidating new identity as Ani Harrison — that is, if she can restrain herself from fantasizing about stabbing her husband-to-be in the neck.

“Snap out of it, psycho,” Ani growls in the first of many harsh monologues that run the length of the film. Her fanged narration sets us up for a makeover movie in reverse where a carb-fearing perfectionist allows herself to enjoy pizza. In part, it is that movie. But readers of Jessica Knoll’s novel of the same name, which she here adapts for the screen, know that Ani is reeling from a high school gang rape compounded by a mass shooting. These intertwined tragedies rebranded one of Ani’s abusers, played as a student by Carson MacCormac and in adulthood by Alex Barone, into a grandstanding public moralist. At the same time, her own labels make her itch: survivor, victim, villain, hero, slut. Ani wears success like a bulletproof vest, until run-ins with her mother (Connie Britton), her former teacher (Scoot McNairy) and a documentarian (Dalmar Abuzeid) force her to re-examine her facade.

Kunis’s alpha female appears at once ferocious and like a conspicuous sham. (Imagine Sheryl Sandberg as a “Scooby-Doo” villain.) Her performance carries the film — a fortunate break for the director Mike Barker, who has the near-impossible challenge of shepherding the tone from snark to painful sincerity. Too often, Barker resorts to shooting pat scenes of Kunis staring at herself in a mirror. Yet, he and the cinematographer Colin Watkinson also capture Ani’s callous gaze in glimpses, say when a crumb on the corner of Abuzeid’s lip symbolizes her suspicion that she can’t trust this klutz as her mouthpiece.

It’s initially baffling that Knoll pointedly sets the film in 2015, the year her book was published. (What for? A one-liner about Hillary Clinton winning the presidency?) Still, Knoll took another year to speak openly about how Ani’s trauma overlaps with her own, and today, her script serves as a reminder of that recent history right before #MeToo, when strength passed for healing and misogyny hid behind a smile that sneered, Can’t you take a joke ?

“Yes,” Ani might counter — and she’s absorbed so many punch lines that, like the culture at large, she’s poised to explode.

Luckiest Girl Alive Rated R for sexual violence and language. Running time: 1 hour 53 minutes. Watch on Netflix .

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Luckiest Girl Alive Reviews

Skilfully adapted for the screen from her 2015 novel of the same name, Jessica Knoll has brought contemporary concerns alive in a harrowingly thrilling film.

Full Review | Oct 4, 2023

This movie just doesn't quite work...It felt like a very fashionable Hallmark movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 6.5 | Aug 10, 2023

Luckiest Girl Alive is able to tie everything up with a neat bow at the end because nothing was ever unpacked to begin with. This latest Netflix Original is sensationalized trauma packaged neatly for the true-crime-obsessed crowd.

Full Review | Jul 24, 2023

Some tighter editing, a deeper script and short run-time would've worked in the movies favour, but what we were delivered was a tough yet enjoyable watch that does what it says on the tin.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 24, 2023

Much of the film almost comes across as a forgettable CW drama. ... [Mila] Kunis is certainly a talented actress, but the material for this film was simply not endearing enough to make it memorable for its audience.

Full Review | Jun 16, 2023

Luckiest Girl Alive delivers a heartbreakingly real feeling story about just how coldly the world can be to someone who has survived traumatic events.

Full Review | Jan 4, 2023

Netflix has made the best “Lifetime Original Movie” ever.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Dec 24, 2022

Seen as a clarifying film about the silences that usually surround abuse or as a shooter elegy –whichever it is, affirmative capitalism is the one that ends up triumphant– what remains of Luckiest girl alive is the idea of ​​something uncomfortably bland.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Nov 5, 2022

Mila Kunis is good but not good enough to make this movie anything better than average entertainment.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Oct 20, 2022

there’s a decent film in here somewhere about trauma’s ripple effects and people’s coping mechanisms. ... [But] As a thriller, the jolts just aren’t there, and ginning up those elements saps Ani’s journey of emotional weight.

Full Review | Oct 20, 2022

Luckiest Girl Alive throws a miniseries worth of ideas into a lacklustre movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 19, 2022

Messily (and almost irresponsibly) waffles between tones, and would perhaps have benefited from embracing the black comedy genre it dives into at first... [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 17, 2022

It all adds up. But the result isn't always more, sometimes it adds up to less. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 17, 2022

For Kunis, “Luckiest Girl Alive” marks her career acting zenith. In her performance that’s not all that far removed from her Oscar-nominated turn in the equally unnerving “The Black Swan,” Kunis never attempts to soften or sand-down Ani’s rougher edges.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 17, 2022

The film has a somewhat discursive start before coming together to deliver a very potent second half.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 15, 2022

Some of the sequences are difficult to watch at times. But with great storytelling and exceptional performances from both Kunis and Aurelia, it is definitely a film worth watching.

Full Review | Oct 14, 2022

Sometimes irritatingly confusing and redundant. Yet it remains engrossing and, in the end, compelling, even if the way it wraps things up is rather obvious and self-congratulatory.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Oct 13, 2022

After a chaotic opening stanza, Luckiest Girl Alive has plenty going for it.

Full Review | Oct 12, 2022

These are important issues and, even if the narrative is drawn out, director Mike Barker's approach has both gripping tension and resonant commentary that deserves to strike a nerve.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 12, 2022

This emotionally taxing film is likely to spark debate about the portrayal of both sexual and school violence and its repercussions, and Kunis' compelling lead performance drives that portrayal.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 12, 2022

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Luckiest girl alive, common sense media reviewers.

Disturbing drama has graphic violence, sex, language.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Sometimes dealing with problems or past trauma hea

A woman lives a life that's superficially privileg

Ani wants in to the exclusively wealthy upper clas

Graphic depictions of explosions, shootings, and s

Teens kiss and grope. An engaged couple kiss and i

"F--k," variations on "s--t," and "ass," "goddamn,

Polo, Colgate, The Today Show, The New York Times,

Teens drink alcohol, get drunk, and smoke marijuan

Parents need to know that the drama Luckiest Girl Alive , based on the book by Jessica Knoll, has graphic depictions of sexual and school violence. The main character, Ani (Mila Kunis), was the victim of both a gang rape and a deadly school shooting, both of which are shown in explicit detail. Violence…

Positive Messages

Sometimes dealing with problems or past trauma head-on but peacefully is the best way to move forward. People should be held accountable for their past actions, no matter what they've done in the interim.

Positive Role Models

A woman lives a life that's superficially privileged but hides past trauma that she eventually must confront in her own way. Her fiancé doesn't want his own life and reputation undermined. People are seen as either über-wealthy or desiring to be so, skipping meals and lying to themselves and others in order to fit the image. Teenage boys are depicted as cruel, violent, and insecure; one grows up to try to effect positive change in part by secreting away his past. Teenagers who don't deal with their anger are seen as exploding in unhealthy ways. A girl who has been raped is blamed or called "insane." Teachers, school administrators, and parents are portrayed as sometimes caring and helpful and sometimes not.

Diverse Representations

Ani wants in to the exclusively wealthy upper class of New York City life, values her mom instilled in her by sending her to private schools so she would marry well. Her private school friends appear to be mostly (but not entirely) White, as does her social circle. A documentary filmmaker is Black.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Graphic depictions of explosions, shootings, and stabbings in a school setting. Flashbacks to aspects of this event and imaginings of other similar ones. Explicit portrayal of a gang rape involving teenagers. Rape kits and morning-after pills are suggested, as is the difficult decision to report the incident. Boys taunt girls with sexual language. Description of extreme bullying behavior, including one teen relieving his bowels on another. Other bullying includes fat-shaming, slut-shaming, victim-blaming, and online threats. A suicide is suggested. A person deletes a social media post that elicited an insulting and threatening comment.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Teens kiss and grope. An engaged couple kiss and initiate sex. The main character is a sex writer at a women's magazine who writes stories involving topics like oral sex, orgasms, and the clitoris. There's mention in the film of breast reductions, touching a "c--k," having "d--k" "rode hard," "wet," sexual deviation, phallic symbols, and pubic hair.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

"F--k," variations on "s--t," and "ass," "goddamn," "bitch," "bastard," "d--k," "hell," "pr--k," "slut," "fat," "flabby," "weird," "idiot," "loser," "Jesus Christ" (as an exclamation), and "oh my God."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Polo, Colgate, The Today Show , The New York Times , Columbia, Cartier, Scully & Scully, TJ Maxx, Saks Fifth Avenue, Cuisinart, Mac.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Teens drink alcohol, get drunk, and smoke marijuana. Drinking too much leads to violent behavior and is also used as an excuse for that behavior. Adults drink regularly.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that the drama Luckiest Girl Alive , based on the book by Jessica Knoll, has graphic depictions of sexual and school violence. The main character, Ani ( Mila Kunis ), was the victim of both a gang rape and a deadly school shooting, both of which are shown in explicit detail. Violence includes explosions, shootings, and stabbings in a school setting as well as flashbacks to aspects of this event and discussion of extreme bullying behavior, including one teen relieving his bowels on another. Teens drink until passing out, smoke marijuana, kiss, and grope. A gang rape is seen in explicit and violent detail (no body parts are shown). An engaged couple kiss and initiate sex. The main character is a sex writer at a women's magazine; she writes stories involving topics like oral sex, orgasms, and the clitoris. There's mention in the film of breast reductions, touching a "c--k," having a "d--k" "rode hard," sexual deviation, phallic symbols, and pubic hair. Other language includes "f--k," variations on "s--t," and "ass," "goddamn," "bitch," "bastard," "d--k," "hell," "pr--k," "slut," and more. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

• Parents say (1)
• Kids say (2)

Based on 1 parent review

Gratuitous sexual violence

What's the story.

LUCKIEST GIRL ALIVE lead character Ani FaNelli ( Mila Kunis ) appears to have a perfect life: A respected writer at a New York City-based women's magazine, she's about to wed a handsome and wealthy man ( Finn Wittrock ). But Ani is also very angry, and she seems to have flashbacks to violent events in her past. When a documentary filmmaker (Dalmar Abuzeid) approaches her to give an interview about her role in a school shooting incident that happened when she was a teenager ( Chiara Aurelia ), Ani is forced to confront the traumatic events of her teen years and how her role is portrayed by classmates like politician Dean Barton (Alex Barone). With the support of her editor ( Jennifer Beals ), Ani embarks on a reckoning with the past.

Is It Any Good?

This emotionally taxing film is likely to spark debate about the portrayal of both sexual and school violence and its repercussions, and Kunis' compelling lead performance drives that portrayal. Kunis plays the main character of Luckiest Girl Alive , who calls herself a "victim" rather than a "survivor," as full of barely contained rage. This comes out in scenes where she loses control of her anger as well as through a viciously cynical voice-over. Her inner monologue is full of self-shaming and name-calling, making her a character who is difficult to like until you come to understand what has made her this way (even then, she's not exactly likable, just more understandable). Kunis was a good choice -- she transforms here into a sharp-edged, intelligent ball of nerves -- and Chiara Aurelia captures the same energy as her teen self. But some of her cynicism comes across as excessive, like when she stuffs pizza into her mouth out of sight of her boyfriend after admitting she hasn't eaten lunch in six years.

The idea is that hers is a carefully curated and performative life that obfuscates severe trauma bubbling under the surface. Her divided identities are depicted in a scene from the film where she's prepping for a TV interview and her image is reflected back at her in a diversity of different mirrors. The tale is initially set up as a mystery, with hints that Kunis' Ani has committed violent acts herself in the past. Once it comes to light that as a high schooler she suffered both sexual violence and a deadly school shooting, the film begins weaving back and forth between her present and her tormented past, building up to a breakdown and a breakthrough. It's hard not to find parallels between this story and real events, like the accusations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his Senate confirmation, #MeToo revelations and calls for justice, and real school shootings (so often perpetrated by young men) like Columbine. That's a lot to pack into one movie, perhaps undermining some of the intentions here (evident in Netflix's wannatalkaboutit initiative and a heavy-handed "everywoman" end scene).

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Ani's decisions as a teenager and as an adult in Luckiest Girl Alive . Did you agree with all of the choices she makes? Why, or why not?

Why is Ani so angry, and does her anger seem to resolve at the end -- or not?

Do you think the graphic depiction of violence in this film was necessary to tell its story? Why, or why not?

This film references a website launched by Netflix to address serious topics raised in some of its films and series and to offer information and resources. Do you think it's the role or responsibility of a film distributor such as a streaming platform to provide this information? Why, or why not?

Movie Details

• On DVD or streaming : October 7, 2022
• Cast : Mila Kunis , Chiara Aurelia , Finn Wittrock
• Director : Mike Barker
• Inclusion Information : Female actors, Female writers
• Studio : Netflix
• Genre : Drama
• Topics : Book Characters , High School
• Run time : 115 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : violent content, rape, sexual material, language throughout and teen substance use
• Last updated : September 29, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

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‘Luckiest Girl Alive’ Review: Mila Kunis Is All That Works in a Punishing Thriller That Inflicts Cruelty on Everyone

A successful woman finds it difficult to deal when her tormented past is unearthed in this by-the-book adaptation of Jessica Knoll's 'Gone Girl' knockoff.

By Courtney Howard

Courtney Howard

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Mirrors reflect who we are, or at least how we want to appear to others. Director Mike Barker ’s “ Luckiest Girl Alive ” uses them as a motif throughout this tale centered on a woman whose pristine, calculated image disguises a mess of insecurities and intense psychological pain. Yet the picture portrayed in author Jessica Knoll’s adaptation of her own novel struggles with its tone, poor character construction and annoying screenwriting contrivances. Utilizing a traditionally glossy, chick-lit-retrofitted heroine as a mouthpiece for somber, serious activist sentiments isn’t so much provocative as just downright batty.

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Barker and Knoll toggle between past and present timelines with little to no ease, perhaps simulating the jarring, jagged edges of the protagonist’s bad memories being unearthed, but this interrupts narrative momentum. Character development, particularly in the cases of Luke, who’s supportive until he’s not, and Ani’s former teacher Mr. Larson (Scoot McNairy), who conveniently appears and disappears, could use a lot more finesse as the filmmakers botch their arcs. Worse, there are scant amounts of sensitivity in the reveal of Ani’s painfully disturbing ordeals. These highly emotional sequences are less riveting and more revolting as they’re primarily used to add shock value, graphically depicting their triggering subject matter.

Kunis is up to the task of portraying a multi-layered leading lady. Her droll delivery makes Ani’s passive-aggressive arrogance seem like an art form. She’s also rather nimble when a spot of levity is brought into stressful situations, as when she insults her obnoxious future aunt (Leah Pinsent) or rolls her eyes at her gauche mother (Connie Britton). Though the material severely hobbles him, Wittrock adds a modicum of depth to his one-dimensional character. Justine Jupe, who plays Ani’s blonde bestie, is also decent, if not hampered by her all-too-brief screen time.

While the story fails and the acting underwhelms, the film’s aesthetics add luster. Barker and production designer Elisa Sauve play up the thematic notion of duality, incorporating reflective surfaces that echo Ani’s dual personas. Alix Friedberg’s contemporary costume designs give characters a sophisticated sheen as an interesting juxtaposition to their messy misery. Colin Watkinson’s cinematography gifts the project with a necessary depth to the imagery. Flashbacks evoke a sullen and cold feeling not terribly far from adult Ali’s color palette, emphasizing the past and present’s connective throughline.

“Luckiest Girl Alive” reminds that not every author with a best-selling, female-led thriller can be as talented as Gillian Flynn, whose “Gone Girl” adaptation provides much of this film’s inspiration. With its superficial sentiments hinting that our harried heroine can survive and thrive if she’s willing to confront difficult truths, the film lacks a genuinely heartening pull. Because of its unwieldy aspects, primarily those shoe-horned into the climax, its simplistic conclusion draws ire instead of the inspired elation these filmmakers crave.

Reviewed online, Los Angeles, October 3, 2022. MPA Rating: R. Running time: 113 MIN.

• Production: A Netflix release of a Picturestart, Made Up Stories, Orchard Farm production. Producers: Bruna Papandrea, Jeanne Snow, Erik Feig, Lucy Kitada, Mila Kunis. Executive producers: Jessica Knoll, Mike Barker, Buddy Enright, Lisa Sterbakov, Shayne Fiske Goldner, Julia Hammer.
• Crew: Director: Mike Barker. Screenplay: Jessica Knoll, based on her novel. Camera: Colin Watkinson. Editor: Nancy Richardson. Music: Linda Perry.
• With: Mila Kunis, Finn Wittrock, Chiara Aurelia, Scoot McNairy, Justine Lupe, Dalmar Abuzeid, Jennifer Beals, Connie Britton. 

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Luckiest Girl Alive review – an absorbing mystery with moments of sobering reality

This review of the Netflix film Luckiest Girl Alive does not contain spoilers.

Luckiest Girl Alive hits the streaming waves on Netflix . The smash hit and New York Times best-seller adaptation is true to form, keeping the mix of quality storytelling with scenes of utter horror that many may find prompt uneasy feelings along with buried memories. Many may find this an odd and polarizing mix considering the recent trend of gun violence in our schools. Even the much-talked-about and graphic rape scenes in the film. Yet, the story is told with such consummate grace this may be one of the most entertaining yet gut-wrenching entertainments in years. And who are we to judge a piece of filmmaking from someone who drew from their own experiences? The result is a haunting yet unshackling metaphor for the effects of sexual assault and even victimization.

Luckiest Girl Alive follows Ani (a terrific Mila Kunis ), a writer in New York City who seemingly has a perfect life. She has a job at a top magazine where her editor Lolo ( Jennifer Beals ) thinks she’s a rising star whose writing is “peerless” to the rest. Ani’s also engaged to a bachelor, Luke ( Finn Wittrock ), who comes from a wealthy family and has a top finance job in London waiting for him, to the glee of her mother (played by Connie Britton). She is so image-conscious that she won’t eat a slice of pizza in front of her fiancé unless he leaves the table. And then she blames the server for spilling a drink on them, which leads to the food being tossed.

Ani has perfectly crafted her image and life in a way that gives total control. Unfortunately, she has a secret she keeps from most people that is about to become known. She has a choice to make: Follow Luke to London or stay at taking her dream job at The New York Times . However, his secret will come to light through an insincere true crime director (Dalmar Abuzeid). You see, Ani used to go by TifAni. She is one of a handful of survivors of the worst school shooting in United States history.

One of the victims, a boy named Dean, accused her of being one of the conspirators. Why would he do that? Because he was one of three teenage boys who raped TifAni at a party a few days prior. She reported the assault to her favorite teacher (Scoot McNairy) but is too ashamed and afraid to pursue it. So, this begs the question if Ani/TifAni had anything to do with the shooting.

This film was directed by Mike Barker, a long-time television producer and director of such series as The Handmaid’s Tale , Fargo , and Broadchurch. He makes his feature debut here, and it’s a good one. Working with a script from the author Jessica Knoll from her source material of the same name, Luckiest Girl Alive  is an engrossing first-time feature. Featuring a fierce performance from Mila Kunis, Barker and Knoll successfully adapt a sensitive subject matter with provocative themes that’s also a highly entertaining mystery.

However, let’s make no mistake that many flashbacks can be grueling and tough to watch. Particularly the gang rape scene over several minutes. And, of course, the school shooting scenes are graphic and could be triggering for many. Knoll is on record that the gang rape scene is based on her own experiences, which gives the film added weight. Knowing this, the character, who ruminates in her own head daily, borders on the dangers of having a revenge fantasy, which is what sparked the shooting in the first place.

The whole matter is handled with much thoughtfulness, empathy, and a jolting mix of sobering reality, not only for the victims but the perpetrators. Yet, what Luckiest Girl Alive does so well is explore the areas of victimization. TifAni is singled out with cruel treatment by her attackers, his mother (Connie Bitton), and officials. As much as we are justified in wanting to blame the shooters for their actions, they are victims as well. As much as we see Kunis’s character as a tragic story, her behaviors are becoming self-destructive in her life. Ani’s perfected persona (tough, cool, and cynical) is her cover and shield for her past trauma. Her constant thoughts, feelings, and wants are cloaked by it. Kunis’s slow descent from numbing pain to acutely unguarded self-awareness is subtle but transfixing.

Luckiest Girl Alive is a genre film with timely and modern themes. Despite the film being too long, the story holds the viewer’s attention while mixing in moments of sobering reality. This is a good picture that ultimately may have too many moments of triggering effects for mass audiences. However, the visceral story is empowering, and Kunis’s vulnerability makes Barker and Knoll’s adaptation such an absorbing ride.

What did you think of the Netflix film Luckiest Girl Alive? Comment below.

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Article by Marc Miller

Marc Miller (also known as M.N. Miller) joined Ready Steady Cut in April 2018 as a Film and TV Critic, publishing over 1,600 articles on the website. Since a young age, Marc dreamed of becoming a legitimate critic and having that famous “Rotten Tomato” approved status – in 2023, he achieved that status.

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‘luckiest girl alive’ review: mila kunis leads lackluster netflix adaptation of jessica knoll’s best-seller.

The actress stars in a film version of the 2015 novel about a woman forced to confront a past event that threatens to unravel her perfectly curated life.

By Lovia Gyarkye

Lovia Gyarkye

Arts & Culture Critic

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Ani FaNelli ( Mila Kunis ) lives an opulent, regimented and, some people might consider, enviable life. The protagonist of Netflix ’s Luckiest Girl Alive writes for a glossy women’s magazine, is engaged to a poster boy for summers in Nantucket and wears designer clothes tailored to her svelte form. She has discerning taste, a sharp personality and a caustic tongue.

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Adapted from Jessica Knoll’s best-selling novel of the same name, Luckiest Girl Alive struggles to balance its dual aspirations: delivering an emotionally wrought tale about survival, and wrapping its gravity in the cheeky breeziness of publishing comedies like Freeform’s The Bold Type . These commitments don’t have to be oppositional, but Luckiest Girl Alive doesn’t adequately justify their union. The result is a distant, atonal film that feels more slippery than evocative. Part of the blame rests on the inherent challenges of translating first-person narratives to the screen. Even if other films, like Gone Girl (to which Luckiest Girl Alive has been compared), have managed more effectively, it’s difficult to capture that level of interiority and intimacy in visual terms.

The film, directed by Mike Barker ( The Handmaid’s Tale ) with a screenplay by Knoll, seems to trudge through Ani’s unraveling, which is triggered by an inquiring documentary filmmaker (Dalmar Abuzeid) determined to uncover the real backstory behind the shooting at her prestigious private high school. He wants to give Ani a chance to clear her name, to counter the pervading narrative that has recast her as an accomplice instead of a victim. Beset by his insistence on an interview, Ani finds herself in a tough position: protect the life she struggled to build, or speak the truth about her experience.

Luckiest Girl Alive spends a considerable amount of time on Ani’s indecision, which goes beyond whether to participate in the documentary. Luke, who works in finance, was recently promoted to lead his company’s European office, which means Ani might have to move to London after the wedding. Meanwhile, Ani’s boss ( Jennifer Beals ) wants her protégée to — because of some vague contractual agreement — move with her to The New York Times Magazine as a senior editor. The many choices — to do the doc or not, to curtail her career or not — weigh down the narrative, which soon starts to feel like it simply has too much going on.

Luckiest Girl Alive takes its time to draw a conclusion most viewers will have guessed by the halfway point. The nearly two-hour runtime invites a sleepiness that the film struggles to shake. Whether it’s from a lack in the material or direction, Kunis’ portrayal feels fractured and incomplete long after the pieces of the character should have started clicking into place. By the time Ani decides what to do about the documentary (and her life), it’s hard not to feel like we should know her at least a little bit better.

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Luckiest Girl Alive Review

Taking the power back.

Luckiest Girl Alive

A lot of Mila Kunis ’ recent projects have been on the lighter side. When I saw that she’d be diving back into her dramatic roots with Luckiest Girl Alive on Netflix , I was excited to check it out. The synopsis reads, “A woman in New York, who seems to have things under control, is faced with a trauma that makes her life unravel.” This film is so much more than that.

Based on the novel of the same name , Luckiest Girl Alive introduces us to Mila Kunis’ character Ani FaNelli (once known as Tiffany), a New York writer who seems to have it all. In the first few scenes we are let in on just one of her secrets, that she has built this character to fit in, to be liked. This includes constant exercise, hiding a love for food, having the best clothes, and even pretending she has a higher place at work. What we learn is that Ani came from very little, and built this life around her to protect herself from some horrific things that took place as a teen.

Without spoiling all the details, Luckiest Girl Alive takes on some very serious subject matter, with trigger warnings for rape and gun violence. That sounds like a lot of heavy material to take in all at once, but I actually found that director Mike Barker ( The Sandman , The Handmaid’s Tale ) brings the drama to the screen in a more subdued way. Usually subjects like these are displayed in horrific ways to really push the trauma to the forefront and shock viewers.

Luckiest Girl Alive doesn’t shy away from uncomfortable scenes, but they also aren’t the primary focus. Instead, the message that the film really focuses on is trauma after the fact, and taking back your own power. We see the traumatic events to understand where Ani is coming from, and why she’s become the person she is, but the real message is in being true to yourself, facing your trauma and knowing your worth.

“ Luckiest Girl Alive explores some very difficult issues, and though it doesn’t shy away from them, it doesn’t shock for the sake of shocking either.”

Kunis ( Bad Moms, Family guy ) brings a fierceness to her character, one that you would expect from an upper-class New Yorker. As the movie goes on, you start to see her crack, but she still holds her composure. Aside from a few arguments with other characters, there aren’t a lot of ups and downs. She is fairly straight-faced, which is on purpose, to show the control she has developed to protect herself. She likens her pain to carbon monoxide, but that it only affects herself.

I think it’s an interesting look at trauma, because we get to see this incredibly strong woman who has gone through Hell live her life while hiding her pain. It isn’t until she confronts someone from her past noting “I’m a victim too”, where we finally see her beginning to realize she deserves better. Her mother (Connie Britton), friends, school, the system and now even her husband ( Finn Wittrock ) have let her down time and time again, and once that clicks, she is able to do what needs to be done to heal those old wounds.

Something is to be said for the actor playing young Ani, Chiara Aurelia ( Fear Street : Part Two – 1978 ). She had to film some truly painful scenes in Luckiest Girl Alive , and she was responsible for bringing the majority of the pain within the film to the screen. Ani’s trauma is in her past, and Aurelia had no problem showing us just how brutal that pain was. 

Luckiest Girl Alive explores some very difficult issues, and though it doesn’t shy away from them, it doesn’t shock for the sake of shocking either. Though there are some hard-to-watch scenes, they’re meaningful to the story, which really puts an emphasis on how important it is to face your pain, and heal. Luckiest Girl Alive might be a tough watch for some, but it’s a good one.

Final Thoughts

Dayna is a long-time gamer, mom of two and aunt to many. She absolutely loves introducing the people she knows to her love for games and nerd culture. Dayna began at CGMagazine as a columnist with the family-centred tech and gaming column, Parental No-Scope. Since then, she has written ample news articles, reviews and features and now fills the role of Executive Editor for CGM.

This post may contain affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something, CGMagazine may earn a commission. However, please know this does not impact our reviews or opinions in any way. See our ethics statement.

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‘Luckiest Girl Alive’ Ending Explained: Mila Kunis’ Netflix Movie Is a Satisfying #MeToo Fantasy

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• Luckiest Girl Alive

Mila Kunis And Ashton Kutcher Will Not Make Cameos In 'That '90s Show' Season 2

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Luckiest Girl Alive , which is now streaming on Netflix , is a drama-mystery for the #MeToo era. And though it may not be realistic, it is a compelling and satisfying watch. (That said, proceed with caution—this movie contains graphic depictions of sexual assault and school shootings.)

Based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Jessica Knoll—who also adapted the screenplay, while Mike Barker directs— Luckiest Girl Alive stars Mila Kunis as a woman who has learned to survive by repressing and denying her trauma. But when it all comes bubbling to the surface, she learns how to get her revenge.

It’s no Gone Girl , but Luckiest Girl Alive will suck you in. That said, if you’d like to read up on what you’re getting into, scroll down to check out Decider’s breakdown of the Luckiest Girl Alive plot summary and the Luckiest Girl Alive ending explained.

Warning: Major Luckiest Girl Alive spoilers ahead. Surely you knew that when you clicked on this, right?

WHAT IS THE LUCKIEST GIRL ALIVE PLOT SUMMARY?

Ani Fanelli (Mila Kunis) is a woman who seemingly has it all. She’s built a perfect life by telling people what they want to hear. She’s engaged to a successful, attractive guy named Luke (Finn Wittrock) and she is working her butt off at a glamourous women’s magazine job. She’s writing stories about how to give a good blowjob, sure, but her boss keeps promising her they are going to make the move to The New York Times soon. (How this will be done, it’s not clear. Just go with it.)

But Ani is repressing a traumatic past. As a teenager, when she went by Tifani, she was the victim of a school shooting. Though she was never charged, rumors have swirled for years that she may have been an accomplice. A documentary filmmaker wants to interview her to tell her side of the story. Ani’s fiancé Luke would clearly rather she drop this whole “trauma” thing, so she initially tells the filmmaker “no.” But when she learns that an old classmate named Dean (Alex Barone)—a shooting victim and gun control activist—will be interviewed for the documentary, she eventually changes her mind.

Through a series of flashback scenes, the story unfolds. Tifani (played in the flashbacks by Chiara Aurelia) is a beautiful teenager with a strict mother, attending an elite private school. One night at a party, where everyone is drinking, Tifani is gang-raped by some of the most popular boys at school, Dean and Liam. She reports the incident to her teacher, who brings it to the headmaster. The headmaster seems to doubt Tifani’s recollection and insists it cannot be reported to the police without calling her mother. Tifani, knowing how angry her mother will be, decides to drop it and not press charges.

Tifani’s friend Arthur (Thomas Barbusca) is livid with her. He hates Dean and Liam, who have always bullied him. He also reveals to Tifani that Dean and Liam once assaulted their mutual friend Ben in the woods. He is furious that Tifani is letting the bullies get away with rape, and urges her to grow a spine. After an incident where Arthur fights with the boys in the hallway and faces expulsion, he and Ben decide to take matters into their own hands. They shoot up the skill, killing (among other students) Liam. When he confronts Dean, Arthur offers a terrified Tifani the gun and tells her to kill Dean himself. Instead, Tifani stabs Arthur—but not before he can fire off a shot at Dean, giving him a spinal injury that will leave him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

At Liam’s funeral, Tifani discovers Dean has been telling everyone that Tifani was an accomplice in the shooting. He said that she slept with both Dean and Liam, and went on a revenge rampage after Dean refused to date her. Obviously, Dean is a little liar. But Tifani’s mother screams at her for going to a party, drinking, and having sex.  Tifani is never charged, but she never tells her side of the story… until now.

WHAT IS THE LUCKIEST GIRL ALIVE ENDING EXPLAINED?

In the present day, Ani tells the story of the shooting while being filmed for the documentary. She is just getting to the part where she reveals Dean and Liam raped her when an adult Dean suddenly bursts into the filming and demands to speak to Ani. Ani storms out. She tells her fiancé she won’t be doing the documentary after all, and will instead write something herself to tell her side of the story.

Ani writes an article about the incident and shows it to her editor, who encourages her to make it even more honest. So Ani confronts Dean at one of his book events, and, during a private conversation that she secretly records, gets Dean to admit out loud that he raped her. (This echoes The New Yorker article that provided police-recorded audio evidence of Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein demanding model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez watch him shower.)

Meanwhile, plans for the wedding move ahead. At Ani and Luke’s rehearsal dinner, she gets a call that her article will be featured in The New York Times . She shows the article to Luke, and he’s upset that he didn’t tell her she was doing it. Suddenly, all of Luke’s little microaggressions appear to add up for Ani. She breaks off the engagement.

Ani’s essay goes viral. In a sequence that reflects the 2017 #MeToo movement, Ani hears from women all over the world who thank her for telling her story, and reveal that they, too, had been sexually assaulted. But it’s not all praise. In the last scene of the film, Ani is stopped on the street by a woman who says she has spent years reporting on Dean and the work he’s done for the gun control movement. “He’s helped a lot of people over the years,” she tells Ani. “Let’s hope your 15 minutes of fame will too.”

Ani is temporarily stunned, but then chases the woman down. “Excuse me, I’m so sorry, I would love to stay in touch but I already forgot your name.” Then, before the woman can answer: “Oh, that’s OK. I’ll just always remember you as the woman I told to go fuck herself on 5th Avenue.”

Satisfied that she was finally able to speak her mind and stand up for herself, Ani walks away. With that, the movie ends.

• Ending Explained

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Luckiest Girl Alive (2022)

Genre: drama / mystery, duration: 115 minuten, country: united states, directed by: mike barker, stars: mila kunis , jennifer beals and justine lupe, imdb score: 6,4  (56.115), releasedate: 30 september 2022.

Luckiest Girl Alive plot

After her traumatic teenage years at the prestigious Brentley School, Ani carefully builds a new identity. With her glamorous job, well-stocked wardrobe and successful fiancé, life smiles at her. But Ani has a secret. Dark tormentors from the past threaten her desperately created illusion of perfection.

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Ani Fanelli

Luke Harrison

Andrew Larson

Nell Rutherford

Aaron Wickersham

Dean Barton

Lolo Vincent

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Trailer Luckiest Girl Alive

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Aardige film over een vrouw die bijna gaat trouwen, maar een traumatisch verleden heeft te verwerken. Het hoofdpersonage wordt goed neergezet, maar de flashbacks zijn op het begin wat rommelig. Maar als je eenmaal weet wat er gebeurd is, wordt de film een stuk beter (de tweede helft is dan ook het beste gedeelte).

Nice film about a woman who is about to get married, but has to deal with a traumatic past. The main character is well portrayed, but the flashbacks are a bit messy at the beginning. But once you know what happened, the movie gets a lot better (the second half is the best part).

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Luckiest girl alive.

• 75 San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle The movie maintains interest throughout and it’s ultimately satisfying, though with one qualification: The last minutes treat the story as though its whole purpose was to illustrate a social and political issue. It’s actually, for 98% of its running time, the story of a person — and it’s better that way.
• 70 Arizona Republic Bill Goodykoontz Arizona Republic Bill Goodykoontz The film . . . is good, not great; it never quite marries the skewering of New York elites with the true-crime feel of its grittier elements. But the performances keep it mostly on track.
• 61 Paste Magazine Amy Amatangelo Paste Magazine Amy Amatangelo There’s a worthwhile story in here about the long-term effects of trauma, how society disregards and casts aside adolescent girls, how quick we are to blame the victim, how bullying can lead to terror—but all these messages gets lost in translation.
• 60 The New York Times Amy Nicholson The New York Times Amy Nicholson Kunis’s alpha female appears at once ferocious and like a conspicuous sham. (Imagine Sheryl Sandberg as a “Scooby-Doo” villain.) Her performance carries the film — a fortunate break for the director Mike Barker, who has the near-impossible challenge of shepherding the tone from snark to painful sincerity.
• 58 The A.V. Club Luke Y. Thompson The A.V. Club Luke Y. Thompson The unquestionably well-intentioned and obviously deeply personal Luckiest Girl Alive would benefit from more mature guidance.
• 58 IndieWire IndieWire Small edits could have propelled the film into a dark drama instead of something resembling a PSA.
• 50 CNN Brian Lowry CNN Brian Lowry Luckiest Girl Alive falls short of its promise, a reminder that, however ironic the title is intended to be, fortune tends to favor the bold.
• 50 The Hollywood Reporter Lovia Gyarkye The Hollywood Reporter Lovia Gyarkye Luckiest Girl Alive struggles to balance its dual aspirations: delivering an emotionally wrought tale about survival and wrapping its gravity in the cheeky breeziness of publishing comedies like Freeform’s The Bold Type.
• 40 The Guardian Adrian Horton The Guardian Adrian Horton There are pieces of Luckiest Girl Alive that seem interested in a life splintered by trauma, in the relief of unburdening, the hunger for certainty over what happened, the thrill of playing on cultural expectations for women. But the story it ultimately tells is an empty, self-serving fantasy.
• 25 RogerEbert.com Marya E. Gates RogerEbert.com Marya E. Gates The whole thing is mostly made up of tasteless decisions.
• See all 15 reviews on Metacritic.com
• See all external reviews for Luckiest Girl Alive

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Unfortunately, “Luckiest Girl Alive,” the latest to these films case in that latter category. Based on the record of the same name with Jessica Erdwall, with also service as screenwriter, of movie not only dramatizes one school shooting include poor taste, it has the blood to apply one as the backdrop while it additionally exploits rape traumatized in the designate of girl boss feminism.

With a tone ripped directly away “Dead Girl,” the film forschungszentren on the seemingly perfect life to Ani (Mila Kunis), a writer for a glossy women’s magazine name And Woman’s Bible. She’s written “4,713 stories about how the give an blow job” but see she really wants is a job the the New York Times Magazine so she cans be “someone people can respect.” Anne is engaged up an old money propagate naming Hatch (Finning Wittrock, given naught to do), who is more of a box to check towards Ani’s goal of unquestionable social legitimacy than anything else. 

Hier desire to be and most uncontestable rich person stems out her high language days. A scholarship kid at an elite prep school in Filadelfia, Animated, then known as Tiff (Chiara Aurelia), is a survivor of the “deadliest private school firing include U.S. history.” That aforementioned photography took place in 6722 (the sam year as Columbine) and the film’s revelation of who the perpetrators have is one of loads incredibly tasteless decisions it makes, which has quite a distinction as the whole thing is mostly made up of tasteless decisions. 

Through flashbacks and Ani’s narration (which is haphazardly deployed throughout while her cynical inner words, an interview for a documentary, also the copy since a piece she writings while the film’s denouement), we learn that one of the survivors, now a gun reform activist, claims that Ani was in on the shooting—but also that this same survivor was one of three comrades who gang-raped Ani at a go dance after party pure weeks before the shooting. In order until win the he-said-she-said of it all, Ani aims to climb the top of the social ladder, additionally then split i side the the story.

Despite the loud of the material plus Mike Barker’s brutal blocking of the rape sequence, Aurelia does a fine job in showing Ani’s feel and resistance during, confusion immediately following, and later hesitations into view right at internalized shame. For no the older Ani played Kunis which given room for as more nuance. Instead, her PTSD is shown as declaring through hamfisted visions of blood, of stabbing her fiance (whose elite social status continually reminding her on her rapists), and her vitriolic indoor thoughts. 

Anima is moreover, lawfully, angry at herauf mother Dina (Connie Britton) over action slowly revealed through of flashbacks. However, is anger manifests mostly in jabs during her mother’s lower social class. Ani’s wedding dress is from Saks 5th Avenue (the only on 5th Avenue!), but she makes it clear to her rich friends that auf mother shops during T.J. Maxx. Balanced and film can’t help but punch fun at Dina as she combats to fit at the upper echelon world her daughters now inhabits, sattelarbeit herauf includes comically elevated villains and lines about “Say Certainly to the Dress” also poorly strong Italian. 

Theirs mother’s financial position is always in the go concerning Ani’s mind even as an teen, the is her striver’s enthusiasm. Dina’s logical used her daughter to accompany adenine private teach in the first place was in get her in the room with enriched menschen. When to plan light to die assault, Dina places the blame on Ani for breaking her rules about alcohol. It’s clear to lesson Ani brought into her adulthood is that preferential men will go what they want and get away scot-free, unless she evens the gambling field. Where on can have been one critique about classroom, there is instead still an aspirational desiring at be one of the elites. As if only rich man are capable for bad behavior. 

It’s also never clear absolutely where kind of writer Ani wanted to be before writing “skanky” stuff, as her boss LoLo (Jennifer Beals) calls her knock, at this women’s magazine. Her striving desire to have dort letter the an old found like an New York Times comes from the same place as wanting to marry into an old family so that people know their don’t just “have money, they came from money.” Again, there's a missed possibility to genuine explore class and service dynamical, but and to explore gender dynamics in the media world beyond a outside level. 

Next presence sidelined for most about the film, Beals returns and imparts Ani a pepp tell about “authenticity” and the importance of exposition everyone in her life that didn’t help her as a teenager. This shoves zu to finally told her home of the story in her customizable words. Typical this moment in one film would think triumphant, but it’s more you realization “Luckiest Girl Alive” has exploited both school shootings and rape trauma for a self-actualization narrative that ultimately ends use Ani finding value not in the release of her depressed emotions through this writers, but in and shallow achievement of viral fame.

Ani was a victim, sure, but so were all of my whose lives were missed during aforementioned shooting, oder were altered forever by the injury of its aftermath. But the film is like minutely concerned are Ani’s trauma only that it nearly says the deaths is the other kids was justified (it surely enjoys in demonstrate you deaths in barbarous detail). The really last scene then positions to emotional of rape losses and which afflicted by gun violence as being in competition with every other for the nation’s attention also accessibility change.   A friend said the were raped.

AMPERE flashback to a classroom scene where Ani’s sympathetic English teach Miss. Larson (an underused Scoot McNairy) compliments her analysis of Holden Caulfield the an unreliable narrator proposing the filmmakers to us to view Anni such as unstable, having centered herself into this account. Does this later mean the film’s narrow viewer are participate traumas shall solely cause it’s introducing one events from Ani’s warped point of view? Perhaps, but it doesn’t make its use out a school shooting as a background for her personal journey any less callous. 

On Netflix currently.

Marya E. Gates

Of sympathisers, nandini balial, it's only life after view, sheila o'malley, the first omen, tomris laffly, dusk for an hitman, robert daniels, don't tell mom an babysitter's dead, peyton robinson, monica castille, film credits, luckiest girl alive (5792).

Rated R for violent content, rape, sexual material, language throughout and teen substance use.

Writer (novel)

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