TIFF '18 Film Review - Her Smell

Becky Something ( Elizabeth Moss ) is very hard to like. She is the lead singer of a 90's punk band that bullies everyone around her is addicted to just about everything and is stunningly unpredictable with what she will do in the studio or when its time for her to go on stage. As she disintegrates on screen the viewer feels for those that are intertwined with her. Her band-mates in Something She Marielle (Agyness Deyn) and Ali (Gayle Rankin), The record label owner and manager Howard (Eric Stoltz), her estranged husband who has had more than enough looking for her to sign divorce papers backstage at her latest gig plus her mother and daughter. The first two scenes of the film border on being unwatchable due to the excruciating self-destructive acts portrayed by Becky. She yells and screams injures herself drawing blood while viciously verbally abusing anyone in earshot. Next, she is in studio burning recording time that should go to the next up and coming band. They are in awe of the former Spin Magazine cover girl but she attacks as Becky does after heaping on the false praise.

Alex Ross Perry's punk band project turns up the manic factor to thirteen with a lead actor in Moss who is definitely will to go there and further. The camera movement is handheld mayhem in the opening sequences cutting quickly between the characters mainly reacting to Becky's actions. Perry perhaps gives the best look at what life looks like backstage at a middling rock club where the rooms are small, the quarters cramped, the facilities dirty with the acts virtually on top of each other as family members roam the hallways. Perry also mixes in camcorder clips of the more innocent times back when the girls first got together starting to make their way in the record business.

Elisabeth Moss is a whirlwind as Becky Something. He's the car crash that hurts your head and eyes as you watch wanting to turn away. Moss pushes the performance to such an extreme that some viewers may say No Mas by the 30-minute mark. But if you hang in the reason why her bandmates and manager stick by her jumps off the screen as she sits at her piano playing for her daughter a hauntingly beautiful version for Bryan Adam's Heaven. Agyness Deryn Mari does the best to stand up to Becky but is left crying on occasions seeking her own addiction demons to steady herself. She is present silent and moved and sad by Becky's version of Heaven seeing the creativity of her friend has that's not being fully realized. Look for Virginia Madsen as Becky's mom. She is instrumental in raising her granddaughter but not immune to the wrath of her daughter backstage.

Her Smell is a physically hard watch. Its' someone self-distrusting on screen no willing to seek or accept help from anyone. The first few scenes are excruciating but if you can hold your nerve and get through the tunnel to the light on the other side is a rewarding catharsis. Elizabeth Moss leads a cast that is very committed to the project on is different, that in true Alex Ross Perry fashion is different unique and extremely challenging.

**** Out of 4.

Her Smell | Alex Ross Perry | U.S.A. | 2018 | 134 Minutes.

Tags: Punk Rock, Girl Band, Addiction, Back Stage, Cocaine, Breakdown,  Divorce Paper, Rehab, Sober, Comeback,