First Hit: The oddity of the characters and the quirky story and acting worked for me.
Two wealthy girls living in a wealthy Connecticut neighborhood, have lost touch since grade school when they use to also ride horses together.
Amanda (Olivia Cooke) was a loner, especially after she killed her ill horse with a knife. She was seen by people as a sociopath. As we are introduced to her she is dropped off at Lily’s (Anya Taylor-Joy) mansion and while the maid is finding Lily, she’s exploring the rooms.
Amanda is there to get tutoring from Lily, and quickly figures out that Lily is being paid to be her friend by Amanda's mom. They start talking why they're ostracized in school.
Amanda begins to tell her tale and it begins with that she has no feelings and cannot ever recall having them. This makes for a weird sort of story because I spent time trying to see Amanda have feelings.
Lily’s father died some years earlier and now her mom, Karen (Kaili Vernoff) is married to a man named Mark (Paul Sparks) who is a real jerk.
Lily wants Mark dead, Amanda killed her horse, they are troubled girls who are planning something together. They bring in Tim (Anton Yelchin) who is a small-time drug dealer who thinks he’s going to be the premier drug dealer on the east coast, but we all know this isn’t going to happen.
Hatching a plot to kill Mark, this whole thing goes haywire and we watch as Lily becomes the new cold girl in town.
The scenes of the girls talking, or attempting to cry on cue were fun, but for me the odd sparse musical accompaniments to certain scenes added to the overall quirkiness of this film.
Cooke was oddly engaging and grabbed the screen with her role. Taylor-Joy was very effective as someone who wanted to stretch her boundaries and find a new way of living. Vernoff and Sparks were strong as Lily’s mom and step dad. His attempts to be perfect were well represented. Yelchin was great as the wanna be drug dealer. Cory Finley wrote and directed this oddly interesting story.
Overall: I liked this more than I thought I would.