Mila Kunis' new movie Luckiest Girl Alive has debuted on Netflix to mixed reviews.
The movie is directed by The Sandman director Mike Barker and follows That '70s Show star Mila Kunis as a woman in New York who suffers a trauma that causes her life to unravel. Joining Kunis in the movie is American Horror Story alum Finn Wittrock, Scoot McNairy and Justine Lupe.
However, the movie hasn't exactly got critics' tails wagging. It currently sits on a Rotten Tomatoes score of 43% and a Metacritic score of 57%. The New York Times gave the movie a mixed review, writing that Kunis delivers an excellent performance but that Barker struggled with the movie's tone.
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"Her performance carries the film — a fortunate break for the director Mike Barker, who has the near-impossible challenge of shepherding the tone from snark to painful sincerity. Too often, Barker resorts to shooting pat scenes of Kunis staring at herself in a mirror," the publication wrote.
Roger Ebert, meanwhile, gave the movie a scathing one-star review: "The movie not only dramatises a school shooting in poor taste, it has the gall to use one as the backdrop while it also exploits rape trauma in the name of girl-boss feminism."
The review continues: "The film’s revelation of who the perpetrators were is one of many incredibly tasteless decisions it makes, which is quite a distinction as the whole thing is mostly made up of tasteless decisions."
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The film didn't fare much better with The Guardian either, receiving a two-star review from them. The review calls the movie, which was adapted from screenwriter Jessica Knoll's own novel, "Empty, self-serving fantasy" and posits that the adaptation "wrings the novel of its caustic wit and serrated observations of New York careerists into a hollow, unearned empowerment anthem."
Variety also criticised the film, writing that Kunis' performance was the only thing that worked in the entire thing. "Kunis is up to the task of portraying a multi-layered leading lady. Her droll delivery makes Ani’s passive-aggressive arrogance seem like an art form," they wrote.
However, they also wrote: "The film lacks a genuinely heartening pull. Because of its unwieldy aspects, primarily those shoe-horned into the climax, its simplistic conclusion draws ire instead of the inspired elation these filmmakers crave."
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Collider agreed that the film boasts a great performance from Kunis, with the publication claiming it was the actress' best-ever performance across her entire career.
"Mila Kunis’ performance is hypnotic and keeps you on the edge of your seat at every turn. You never know what she’s going to do or say, and once the movie starts wrapping up and makes the core of her behaviour clear, you fully understand and relate to the character," they wrote.
"It offers a career-best performance from Mila Kunis and isn’t afraid to throw salt in two giant wounds that can’t and won’t heal until we treat them with the seriousness they demand."
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