Her Smell (2019)

Is the self-destructive rock star trope that interesting. While I found myself impressed with Elizabeth Moss fully embracing her character's ____, I kept waiting for there to be something original in the insight. Is it just a tragedy or is there something new for us to understand about the creative mind or about the way the corporatization of that creative mind wrecks it? I'm not sure Her Smell gets there. It does give Moss a chance to give a truly fascinating performance and it does give us a chance to feel her and her pain.

The story of a rock star whose success and mental health are waning is shot by writer/director Alex Ross Perry in a cinema verite style, mimicking the kind of back stage documentaries that we like to watch about real rock stars. Moss plays the centre of a once successful band who is surrounded by family (her husband and mother) industry (the executives and other artists) and her own demons. She is isolated from the very start, both literally and emotionally. She is both victim and author or her own destruction. She is sober but finding that sobriety isn't giving saving her from herself either. We watch helplessly as she ensures no one helps her and everyone around her uses that as the excuse for not helping her. And in the end everyone takes from her what they need.

This is the sort of story we've seen played out both in fiction and in reality time and again. Her Smell isn't about answers or blame, answers and blame are thrown around but as an audience we aren't left with anything easy. In that Her Smell is strong. But as the story reached its conclusion I was left feeling fairly empty about Becky and her trajectory. Her Smell never got under my skin. I felt too removed, like everyone around Becky perhaps.

Her Smell
Starring: Elizabeth Moss, Amber Heard, Cara Delevingne, Dan Stevens, Eric Stolz, Virgina Madson
Writer/Director: Alex Ross Perry