the outer layer is a bright candy coated shell, but peeling that back reveals the inside as hollow. i don’t have negative feelings about the ending (or the film as a whole) the way some do, actually i enjoyed it until it was almost over. but then the bad taste it left behind immediately started creeping in. as a complete picture it just feels like a bunch of gotcha moments that lack a certain kind of empathy for the subject matter. the ending solidified my problems with it, bringing such potential together for just another bigger gotcha moment. it’s bold, and i dig that, but surely justice can be doled out with a little hope still attached. without that hope it just feels too cruel for my liking

all that being said, carey mulligan was so solid here, she never gives a bad performance. and i’ll throw this in just because it’s on my mind: the assistant, which came out this year as well, feels to me like the antithesis of this (and of something like bombshell) in the best way. i highly recommend it for a different approach to this kind of story