Luckiest Girl Alive

Luckiest Girl Alive

A successful woman in New York City finds her life upended when she is forced to confront a dark truth that threatens to unravel her meticulously crafted life.

  • Released: 2022-09-30
  • Runtime: 113 minutes
  • Genre: Crime, Drama
  • Stars: Mila Kunis, Finn Wittrock, Scoot McNairy, Chiara Aurelia, Thomas Barbusca, Justine Lupe, Alexandra Beaton, Dalmar Abuzeid, Alex Barone, Carson MacCormac, Jennifer Beals, Connie Britton, Gage Munroe, Alexandra Beaton, Nicole Huff, Isaac Kragten, David Webster
  • Director: Mike Barker
 Comments
  • elizabethhauser - 11 March 2024
    Stunning...
    This film was not what I expected. Mila Kunis was simply spectacular, and the writing, phenomenal. Highly recommend. While the topic may seem too personal, too sensitive for some: those are precisely the individuals who MUST watch it. I shivered so often throughout - daunted by the complexity of the experiences being depicted - as well as the horrifying emotions, so well played out by the actors. I never read the book, but I will now - despite knowing the ending. And, despite my long- running rule to never read the book after the movie (or vice-versa). I wish more cinema mirrored this subject type and brilliant execution on screen.
  • smpwvykj - 25 August 2023
    TRIGGER WARNING NECESSARY...Hard to review
    The trailer for this film is VERY MISLEADING!!

    There is a very real, very triggering depiction of gang rape that should come with a trigger warning. It is so graphic that I was mentally re-traumatized by it for weeks after. This needs to be addressed by the producers/executives who make the film and the trailers for the film. I am not the only trauma survivor who had no idea that was coming, and was thoroughly re-traumatized by it.

    Putting that aside, this film hits on some very important parts of the rape culture including slut shaming the victim, the "boys will be boys" mentality, and the sad truth about the rumor mill/gossip circles of high school and a small community. Also the was her mother reacts is very on point. So it's VERY honest and accurate about what really happens to young women/girls when they are the victim or rape, and then re-victimized over and over again in a community.

    NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART, but truthful and needs to be seen.
  • cjonesas - 31 March 2023
    [6.6] Mila vs Chiara - who would you choose...
    A shuffled and confused movie with very good flashbacks and average anticlimactic present.

    The acting as far as the flashbacks are concerned are good and believable, spearheaded by the darkly magnetic Chiara Aurelia with her ever fuzzy aura emanating vulnerability, uncertainty and danger. The boys of the flashbacks were also good, even the events depicted there were disturbing, thrilling and powerful.

    Fast forward to the present of the movie and we have Mila Kunis that it it took me a long and hard time to recognize as the adult version of Chiara Aurelia! She was badly chosen, was wooden behaviorally and to some extent emotionally as well as being uncharismatic as hell, leading to singlehandedly sort of ruining all efforts of her younger self together with the movie as a general picture.

    She could never compete with Chiara Aurelia, let alone represent her adult self. CGI / VFX should have prevailed this time in having miss Aurelia all the way and completely in the movie.

    Also, the ending was also unimpressive and anticlimactic and could have better contributed to the gun control idea and "vision".

    • Screenplay/story: 6.5
    • Development: 8
    • Realism: 7
    • Entertainment: 6
    • Acting: 6.5
    • Filming/cinematography: 7
    • VFX: 7.5
    • Music/score: 7
    • Depth: 6
    • Logic: 6.5
    • Flow: 6.5
    • Drama mystery thriller: 6
    • Ending: 6.
  • abi-55151 - 1 January 2023
    How has this not got higher reviews???
    Went into this film not knowing much and with low expectations but wow I was blown away. Im sure many women can relate in some form or another, but I think even if you haven't experienced trauma this will still hit home. I felt her frustration & how alone she must have felt throughout and by the end I was balling. It takes a lot to make me cry but wow!

    I think there's important messages in this film about how society handles SA and victim blaming, even close loves ones. And what the character did was so brave, and just goes to show all of the obstacles in the way when people say "why didn't you just report it?"

    Anyway Mila Kunis was amazing in this different role from her usual and I think the film handled the subject matter sensitively. Can't speak for everyone though and if this is particularly close to home maybe watch with caution.
  • punch87 - 29 November 2022
    Mila Kunis is good but not good enough to make this movie anything better than average entertainment.
    I'm part of the club that believes Mila Kunis should have received a nomination for her performance in Black Swan. She's always been a riveting, charismatic actress, so when I found out she would be the lead in Netflix's Luckiest Girl Alive, I hoped that the material would allow her to shine. Unfortunately, the screenplay isn't as well-developed as it needed to be, considering all the heavy themes it explores. Kunis delivers an impeccable performance, and is the best thing about this movie, but everything that surrounds her is a mess.

    Kunis plays Ani, a writer at Women's Bible. She's engaged to be married to the wealthy and good-looking Luke (Finn Wittrock), her boss LoLo (the ever luminous Jennifer Beals) adores her, and she also has Nell (Justine Lupe), a supportive friend always by her side. Ani's spent years crafting this perfect image for herself, this slender, successful woman worthy of marrying into a family like Luke's.

    The film surrounds Ani with mirrors and reflective surfaces, to symbolise how the interior does not match the exterior. The viewer is privy to Ani's interior, since the narrative is guided by her acerbic, sarcastic commentary. No one is spared from the barbed wire of her tongue, only internally of course, though there is this one chef's kiss moment in the film when the acid of her thoughts slips out into the open. On the outside, Ani plays the role of a wind-up doll, afraid that Luke will discover that she's a fraud. Kunis is so good here, perfecting a physical mask of restraint to hide an interior marked with cracks.

    As the film wears on, we're cast into flashbacks of Ani's younger days at Brentley, a private school. As a scholarship student, Ani (Chiara Aurelia) isn't socially on the same level as her peers, so she's flattered when the popular kids take an interest in her. Things take a dark turn, and Ani struggles to deal with what was done to her, especially when it's downplayed by everyone around her. And the ones that don't, like her friend Arthur (Thomas Barbusca), accuse her of compromising her dignity because she chooses silence.

    These flashbacks to her past are heavy with the dark realities they contain, but the way they're woven into the narrative feels random and sudden, as if their only purpose is to shock the viewer. The way some of these moments are staged also feel tonally confusing, at times coming across more like action movie than a drama.

    The movie doesn't accord much space to Ani's relationships with Luke and Nell, which is a shame because Wittrock and Lupe are both compelling in the scenes we do get. The constant imagined moments of Ani stabbing Luke gives us insight into how she truly feels about him and their relationship, and while he seems to play the role of the perfect fiancé, underneath all that support is a desire to control her and their lives together. Nell is Luke's opposite. Even though they both operate in the same social circles, Nell prioritises Ani and what she wants in their friendship, while Luke doesn't.

    Luckiest Girl Alive is too scattered to make an impact, but it's certainly proof that Kunis is fantastic and needs to be in better movies.
  • alanfl1 - 14 November 2022
    Finally, Netflix Airs a Solid Film
    I didn't expect much from this movie, but it became pretty clear from the outset that it might actually avoid all the Hollywood cliches and be something worthwhile. It did and it is. The story, script and direction are all surprisingly good! There's none of the usual stupidity I expect from a film about an adult subject; actual *thought* went into this. Mila Kunis, now 39, has actually become a decent actress. Her performance is enhanced by silent ruminations which frequently belie her words. In one scene she agitatedly mouths one instead of keeping it inside her head, with subsequent consequences -- a nice touch which I've never seen in any other movie. Her flashbacks are important instead of mysterious, gradually revealing the haunting trauma of her past, and we don't have to wait until the end to understand it. The story's resolution is sensible and unapologetic, and aside from one minor quibble, I rate it an excellent all-around Netflix production.
  • Tothepowerof42 - 1 November 2022
    Awful script
    This was so promising, and I thought it looked great based on the trailer and the idea of a mystery movie. It was going to be perfect for a rubbishy "Sunday post-hike" movie.

    Well, it was awful. It was so predictable. "Moody woman attacks everyone she knows" / everything that has happened to her has been someone else's fault & now she's "rising above", bringing people down on the way.

    The script was nothing short of embarrassing if I'm honest.

    The quotes taken from the book make sense, being as it is based on a book. However, this sort of dialogue does not work in a movie; especially one in which you're meant to be relating to that character.

    I would not recommend whatsoever. Mila Kunis, as usual, was good. But the general movie was not. It took me 3 painful hours of pausing, returning, pausing etc to watch the entire thing. Literally anything else was more gripping than this movie.