At first, I'd want to say the film Eileen 'Carol by way of Jim Thompson,' and all this while being based on a whole other book (unread by me). But that makes it sound both more emotionally restrained and/or romantic and even more unpleasant than this is or could even pretend to be. And there is a nasty streak running through this that means you can't much "like" anyone or "relate" and that is, in its way in 2023 cinema, refreshing. Needless to say, it's my kind of thoroughly engrossing, perverse, precisely character-based and subjectively presented study Neo-Noir, where circumstance and chance meets the fatalism of a child of a cop, and yet...
I didn't think it was tonally all over the place as I've seen a few of the reactions, as it is all of a piece as we are seeing things from this young woman's jaundiced and outsider-y perspective. On that level, for as unpleasant as things get for Eileen (and as unpleasant as she makes things eventually), it is all about a woman - a human being, but especially as a woman - who has so little prospects or hope for much in the way of change for herself, and the one new beacon of light is quite up front about what she gets out of people (and that is... pretty one sided!)
And if you need a connecting thread, going back to this as a Feminist story (or an anti-Feminist one if that is your reading), one could say Eileen is about a woman realizing who she is, what is her agency (and the full dearth of it), why she needs to break free, and this despite everything in her life being crap. As is the case with countless Film Noirs and Femme Fatales, sometimes it takes that one New Wild Card Connection (ie Stanwyck in Double Indemnity) to shake things up and change things; Rebecca hearkens back to so many of the cunning and sultry blond women of yore, only this time the "Average Joe" archetype is a mousy young lady who is at a muddy crossroads with a Very Bad Dad (though he's not the only one, as it turns out eventually.... mild spoiler).
The film is brown and gray and smokey-looking, locations highlighting snow snd Christmas time can still look decrepid, but you dont feel totally despairing watching even as Eileen the character may be at points (that shot of her in the bathtub, my goodness). Eileen the film is, like Carol, beautifully shot despite/because it has such a moribund and brooding color palette and vibe. And McKenzie and a career-best Hathaway have electric chemistry (which, as it turns out, is all part of the Hathaway-Rebecca character's entire persona to act like she has this chemistry with anyone as a perpetual user), while Shea Wigham and Marin Ireland appear in bursts in this like these little tornados that pick you up and thrash you around with what they unleash on the audience.
The ending is... hmm. Gotta sleep a little more of that one. Or... maybe not. Maybe that does make sense on a story level, and I wanted one more McKenzie and Hathaway scene (McKenzie by the way gets a much more unnerving and difficult person to portray, totally f-ed up and horny and confused and full of potential for violence, and it's nice to see her with someone meaty after Last Night in Soho didn't give her as much). But Eileen hits the spot if you're hankering for an (eventually) suspenseful story of moral decay and the things that make life worth living - like watching the partner you have a crush on punching a man for coming on so strong and then going back to dance without a care in the world.
I didn't think it was tonally all over the place as I've seen a few of the reactions, as it is all of a piece as we are seeing things from this young woman's jaundiced and outsider-y perspective. On that level, for as unpleasant as things get for Eileen (and as unpleasant as she makes things eventually), it is all about a woman - a human being, but especially as a woman - who has so little prospects or hope for much in the way of change for herself, and the one new beacon of light is quite up front about what she gets out of people (and that is... pretty one sided!)
And if you need a connecting thread, going back to this as a Feminist story (or an anti-Feminist one if that is your reading), one could say Eileen is about a woman realizing who she is, what is her agency (and the full dearth of it), why she needs to break free, and this despite everything in her life being crap. As is the case with countless Film Noirs and Femme Fatales, sometimes it takes that one New Wild Card Connection (ie Stanwyck in Double Indemnity) to shake things up and change things; Rebecca hearkens back to so many of the cunning and sultry blond women of yore, only this time the "Average Joe" archetype is a mousy young lady who is at a muddy crossroads with a Very Bad Dad (though he's not the only one, as it turns out eventually.... mild spoiler).
The film is brown and gray and smokey-looking, locations highlighting snow snd Christmas time can still look decrepid, but you dont feel totally despairing watching even as Eileen the character may be at points (that shot of her in the bathtub, my goodness). Eileen the film is, like Carol, beautifully shot despite/because it has such a moribund and brooding color palette and vibe. And McKenzie and a career-best Hathaway have electric chemistry (which, as it turns out, is all part of the Hathaway-Rebecca character's entire persona to act like she has this chemistry with anyone as a perpetual user), while Shea Wigham and Marin Ireland appear in bursts in this like these little tornados that pick you up and thrash you around with what they unleash on the audience.
The ending is... hmm. Gotta sleep a little more of that one. Or... maybe not. Maybe that does make sense on a story level, and I wanted one more McKenzie and Hathaway scene (McKenzie by the way gets a much more unnerving and difficult person to portray, totally f-ed up and horny and confused and full of potential for violence, and it's nice to see her with someone meaty after Last Night in Soho didn't give her as much). But Eileen hits the spot if you're hankering for an (eventually) suspenseful story of moral decay and the things that make life worth living - like watching the partner you have a crush on punching a man for coming on so strong and then going back to dance without a care in the world.