Paradise Waits

I'll admit, I queued up Paradise Hills (2019) because Netflix recommended it and I liked the cast (of women). It looked like a sci-fi fantasy, but I thought I could sell it to Ms. Spenser as horror. Turns out I didn't have to.

It starts with Emma Roberts at a baroque futuristic ball, that turns out to be her wedding. She sings an odd song for her husband (sinister nonentity Arnaud Valois), then precedes him upstairs. She gives a "your probably wondering how I got here..." voice-over, and we flash back to:

Roberts wakes up on a concrete cube in a futuristic room. She is wearing a dirty bathrobe and tee-shirt. She has been kidnapped. Guards come and force her to dress in a Thierry Mugler white dress, with a tuille skirt, white leather harness and a sort of utility ruff. She meets the headmistress, Mila Jovovich, who wears enormous hats and delicately gardens or sips tea as she explains. They are on an island called Paradise Hills, a sort of finishing school, reformatory or spa, where rebellious girls are sent to improve. They get lessons in comportment, yoga, spa food, and some clumsy brainwashing.

Roberts is rooming with Danielle Macdonald, a fat girl sent to slim down, who figures it will be a nice break from her mother, and Awkwafina, a punk who wears spiked headphones at all times and suffers from panic attacks. She is befriended by Eliza Gonzalez, a pop star who has been sent to Paradise Hills to make sure the hits keep coming. 

They plot to escape, they learn the secret of the island (think Stepford Wives). There are some mild horror scenes, and a very fairy tale ending for Jovovich. The ending is quite satisfying, although maybe some clever plotting was sacrificed for improved symbolism. 

But all that isn't important. Ms. Spenser in particular was enchanted by the sets, costumes, and art direction. It has a mixture of a Renaissance fairy tale and post-Modern decadence. It was partly filmed at Ricardo Bofill's La Fabrica, a decommissioned concrete factory turned into a modern castle. Add to this a fine cast of women, with Jovovich doing a wonderfully mad grand-dame. I was reminded a bit of Mirror, Mirror, with Julia Roberts in the evil stepmother role. It was also more beautiful than good. 

A Spanish production, this was directed by Spaniard Alice Waddington, whose only other feature is Disco Inferno. Not currently on Netflix, but we'll watch out.