Intenções Cruéis

JANE was a real surprise, very well written, acted and directed. Loved all of the twists and turns, so you never really knew what was coming. Madeleine Petsch was extraordinary in her role, as was the director, Sabrina Jaglom, to make sure the movie moved along at just exactly the right pace. An interesting tale of how social media is infiltrated in high schoolers to the point of taking over their lives. Relevant and at the same time, the reality of what is going on in our society is sobering. This is so much better than most of what I am seeing these days, and really connects what high schoolers are going through to succeed to matter what and no matter what they have to do to get there. How can students these days just learn and succeed. If you aren't at the top of your game with social media, there is no hope. Go see this gem.

Is it a a cruel intention sort of thing? A revenge story? A ghost story? Some sort of possession or mental illness? Or even a modern Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde interpretation? I have seriously no idea.

Yes there are components which are very important to be adressed in our current society, in the way we act and interact with each other: topics such as PTSD, suicide, bullying, cyber mobbing etc. However the movie does not deliver a coherent picture, nor does it manage to create tension or to come up with a plausible solution. Unless, of course, u would rate the proclaimed self-set goal of the hero/anti hero as an appropriate solution.

No pun intended - not being able to deal with the issues of life is something we may not be able to see in others. Not everyone is putting their misery out there - not everyone is seeking help. If you need or feel trapped, please do talk with friends, family or a professional. Just make sure you do not end up like the best friend of the main character of this movie.

But as a quote says, it is not tough on the person not here anymore ... it is tough for those left behind. One in particular - our main character once again. And her way dealing with it ... well it starts off with small things, but as we know, they never stop there. So once the ball is rolling ... other things get said and done ... and consequences will follow.

The ending is quite something ... you may guess that it will take that ... path, but I think it still will have the impact it intends to have ... so brace yourself ... and "enjoy"

Jane is actually a slap in the face of those of believe in karma. Director Sabrina Jaglom and her co-writer Rishi Rajani uses the trauma trope not just as a means to drive the plot, but to keep proceedings engaging and deceitful. It takes more than a couple of retaliatory instances to understand whether Olivia (Madelaine Petsch, who does a great job making us hate her) is doing the things she does as a trauma response or because she's pure evil. I liked how social media has a pretty major role to play in the film, and how high-schoolers especially perceive their acceptance of others based on their popularity on such platforms. There's a scene where Olivia and her friend Izzy (Chloe Bailey) make fun of a teacher in their school for having only six followers on social media - that sums it up!

When Olivia suggests the idea of using their dead mutual friend's social media profile to "expose" people in their school, Izzy instantly agrees. The effects are far-reaching, and it soon spirals out of control. Olivia also has hallucinations of Jane (Chloe Yu), the dead mutual friend, who's either giving her the stare - a sort of "do you really want to do this?" look - or being her virtual partner in crime (literally!). The writing gets this aspect right, as the transition from Jane's silent staring to eventually becoming Olivia's virtual accomplice is gradual. Olivia's true colours - her manipulative nature and selfishness - are convincingly portrayed. Izzy plays along until she becomes a victim herself, and Chloe Bailey does a solid job with the character who, unlike Olivia, has a conscience.

I think the makers could have used some quirky edits to showcase the social media aspects, and the visual side could have been a little less bland. Also, Madelaine Petsch looks a bit too old to be in high school. Between this and Thoroughbreds, the latter scores higher in my books. Jane makes you also think of the state of mental health of Gen Z-ers, though purely at a surface level. It just wants you to believe that certain kind of trauma responses can turn out to be dangerous and life-altering. The rest is teen-thriller pulp!

... because -- and this is the point of JANE -- the rest of the world is not. Creator Sabrina Jaglom has done a very professional job of demonstrating how stress flows top-down in our culture. Thirty years ago it was normal and acceptable in our society for these sorts of problems to be felt only by middle-aged male executives (Michael Douglas, FALLING DOWN 1993). Today it is normal and acceptable for these same stresses to impact a teenager in an elite girl's school simply looking for the textbook-perfect career path. In many ways Jaglom's film is the anti-Netflix, never afraid to go farther and further than the populist pap from that brand-name streaming leader. It is significant that the film itself is named after a character who is already dead (suicide) just as the story starts, a trope popular with the FILM NOIRS from the 1940's, but not used much today. Reinforced by a very strong performance from Madelaine Petsch, JANE checks all the boxes -- fascinating, attention-grabbing, and disturbing as hell. ((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))