Now on Netflix, Jenna Ortega and Martin Freeman star in Miller’s Girl, a dark erotic thriller about a pretentious high-school student and her admiring teacher.
This piece on Miller’s Girl was originally published in connection with the film’s theatrical release. It has been updated and republished for the film’s arrival on Netflix.
No matter how often the argument resurfaces, we aren’t really running out of movie stars — especially not as far as fandom is concerned. There are still plenty of actors out there with devotees who eagerly track their faves from project to project. Jenna Ortega has built that kind of following, from her child-actor phase as a Disney TV stalwart to playing young Jane on Jane the Virgin, the title role in Netflix’s Wednesday, and one of the new crop of knife-fodder-to-be in the Scream reboot series. Her fans have been vocal about the excitement of seeing her take on more adult, more independent, and more ambitious roles. But they’re going to have an interesting time figuring out how to swallow her latest movie Miller’s Girl, now that it’s arrived on Netflix.
Anyone who felt distanced from their peers in high school and ready to move on to the adult world should find an initial spark of recognition in Jade Halley Bartlett’s writing and directing debut. Miller’s Girl stars Ortega as the improbably named Cairo Sweet, a rich high-school trust-funder living a decadent life alone in a vast house while her parents travel. Cairo seems infinitely bored with everything but her own fulsome, over-the-top writing. She briefly finds a kindred spirit in one of her teachers, Jonathan Miller, played by Marvel Cinematic Universe/Peter Jackson’s Hobbit movies/Cornetto trilogy veteran Martin Freeman. Given how jaded they both are with everything else, and how quickly they fascinate each other, it’s no surprise that this teacher-student relationship quickly goes wrong.
What is surprising, though, is how Miller’s Girl just as quickly loses the plot, and loses everyone around Cairo in the effort to center the story on her.
A lot’s been said lately about whether movies are getting longer on average, and whether that’s a problem for anyone, apart from the usual internet kvetchers, or theater owners who want to churn through showings faster. But where the tight 90-minute thriller still has significant appeal, Miller’s Girl’s scant 93 minutes make a strong argument for longer movies.
