Let's get weird.
"In Fabric" is the latest movie from Peter Strickland. This one is an out-and-out horror film, featuring some throwback elements to the Italian giallo flicks and softcore European erotic thrillers of the '60s and '70s. The story is about a killer dress, and of course very campy, but here the campiness is elevated to such delirious heights that it enters the realm of voluptuous surrealism.
It's sales season in the UK, and divorced bank teller Sheila Woodchapel (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) is looking for love after her adult son Vince (Jaygann Ayeh) takes up with a disagreeable new girlfriend (Gwendoline Christie). She visits a strange department store where one of the clerks, Miss Luckmoore (Fatma Mohamed), sells her a fabulous, one-of-a-kind red evening dress. Luckmoore fails to mention that the dress has a tragic history and destruction follows in its wake.
The killer dress isn't even the strangest element in the film. There's the department store and its clerks, who speak in flowery aphorisms, perform erotic rituals with the mannequins after hours, and create hypnotic television advertisements. There's Sheila's bosses, Stash (Julian Barratt) and Clive (Steve Oram), who talk in circles and ask uncomfortably personal questions. There's the electronics repairman, Reg (Leo Bill), whose descriptions of appliances send people into trances. As with all of Strickland's films, the sensory impressions and atmosphere are everything. Rich soundscapes, luxuriant visuals, and lingering shots of favored objects are given far more attention than the particulars of the plot.
I don't think that "In Fabric" really works as a horror film, though there are some interesting depictions of death and mayhem. At its heart, it's a trippy art house mood piece with darkly sinister vibes and a production design to literally die for. As far as style goes, it's impeccable. As an exercise in bloody cinematic aesthetics, it's fun - assuming you know what you're getting yourself into. However, I don't think it's as effective as either of Strickland previous features, probably because there are so many different elements in play and a mix of different tones. Marianne Jean-Baptiste is excellent, but it also felt like she was in a different film half the time - something much more grounded and sincere than the wacky fashion fetish phantasmagoria that "In Fabric" is only able to pretend that it isn't for so long.
A far more clumsy, but still admirable style-over-substance fantasy film is "Paradise Hills," the directing debut of Spanish director Alice Waddington. The narrative is pretty straightforward, but the film's eye-popping art direction, costuming, and production design are where it really stands out. Set at an outrageously posh reform school for rich girls, some time in the indeterminate future, Una (Emma Roberts), Chloe (Danielle Macdonald), Yu (Awkwafina), and Amarna (Eiza González) are trapped under the care of the Duchess (Milla Jovovich) and her minions. Una has been sent there for rejecting the marriage proposal of the evil Son (Arnaud Valois), Chloe is overweight, Yu is introverted and has panic attacks, and Amarna's singing career has been jeopardized by her behavior. Naturally, the goal is escape.
The fairy tale narrative and the paper thin characters really only serve as a framework for the filmmakers to indulge in the visuals. Though the film is set in the future, the costuming is full of throwbacks to the past. Paradise Hill's clothing options put the girls in spotless white neck ruffs and medieval bodices, while their guards' uniforms recall suits of armor. The main dormitory looks like a dollhouse dreamed up by Giorgio de Chirico, possibly with Fascist connotations. The Duchess, constantly surrounded by flowers, and often bedecked in flowers, certainly can't be trusted. The film is full of confectionary pastel colors and floral motifs, playing with traditional feminine imagery and aesthetics. Uma is forced to get a makeover early on that includes getting her hair dyed bright pink.
Sadly the storytelling's not strong enough to make the best use of all these gorgeous elements. They're never quite over-the-top enough to push the movie into the realm of something like "Beyond the Black Rainbow" or "The Neon Demon" where the style really takes over the narrative, or "The Love Witch" or "In Fabric," where style fills in the thematic blanks. When push comes to shove in the last act, "Paradise Hills" falls back on the very typical visual language of your standard action adventure film, with a few artsy flourishes. Take away the glitz and the roses, and there's not much to write home about. The actresses are fine, but the material is awfully slight, and the finale is terribly rushed.
An aside - if Alice Waddington and company ever want to try doing a live action "Revolutionary Girl Utena," I'd be all for it.
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