Martha Marcy May Marlene
In Sean Durkin’s award-winning debut film, an escaped cult member struggles to re-assimilate with her family.
Directed by Sean Durkin
(R)
***
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Writer/director Sean Durkin’s debut is “a deft, old-school psychological thriller” that features a “superb performance” by newcomer Elizabeth Olsen, said J. Hoberman in The Village Voice. Olsen, the younger sister of celebrity twins Mary-Kate and Ashley, plays an escaped cult member who’s struggling to re-assimilate with her well-to-do family while she’s haunted by memories of the Manson-like clan she recently fled. What’s “ingenious” about the story’s structure is that we learn only gradually about the cult and its continuing hold on the title character’s psyche, said Rene Rodriguez in The Miami Herald. John Hawkes is fantastic as the twisted cult leader, and Olsen is perfect as an “enigmatic, blank-faced” young woman whose wounds seem permanent and whose paranoia becomes our own. The ending frustrates, said Lisa Schwarzbaum in Entertainment Weekly. After all the suspense, this Sundance award winner “leaves a viewer hanging—lost in an enveloping fog of mood without resolution.” Even so, the film marks the arrival of a star. Olsen is a performer who “looks like she knows exactly who she is and what she can do.”
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
Myanmar: the Spring Revolution and the downfall of the generals
Talking Point An armed protest movement has swept across the country since the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi was overthrown in 2021
By The Week Staff Published
-
Rwanda's killing fields: 30th anniversary of genocide
In Depth This month, world remembers one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century
By The Week UK Published
-
Crossword: April 21, 2024
The Week's daily crossword
By The Week Staff Published