JUST A LITTLE OFF THE TOP // A FILM REVIEW OF "THE STYLIST"
The typical serial killer movie often looks the same: A loner, almost always a white man. No one around him suspects that he could do such a thing. Films often look like this for very good reason. The majority of real life serial killers are white males, so the same trend often reflects back onto the screen. However, Jill Gevargizian's new film THE STYLIST has a different and fresh take. The killer in her tale is a female hiding in plain sight. Claire (Najarra Townsend) is a stylist at a salon. Quiet and keeps to herself. But right away we see the darkness that lies in her. An out-of-town customer comes in for a trim and ends up being her last client of the day. All the other stylist go home, leaving just the two of them. She offers a drink, a glass of wine, and the customer starts spilling her secrets onto Claire, telling her of an affair she's having. Claire asks her why she feels comfortable telling her this. "Do you trust me?" The woman explains that it's because Claire is a stranger. She can tell her whatever she wants because she's not part of her everyday life. She'll walk away and her secret will be left at the salon. Well, her secret affair is the least of her problems, as she soon passes out due to something Claire put in the drink. Claire then slowly and assuredly locks up the shop and cuts off the young woman's scalp, essentially creating a wig from her victim as a sort of trophy. Trusting Claire to cut her hair was the last thing she should have done.
Soon enough, one of Claire's reoccurring customers Olivia (Brea Grant) who texts in a panic after she loses her wedding hair stylist. She begs Claire to take over, but wedding hair is something Claire doesn't like to do. However, Olivia is able to convince her because (as we find out) Claire is obsessed with her. As the wedding gets closer and closer, Claire's obsession gets darker and darker, leading to a truly fantastic ending that's both shocking and operatic in its grandeur. The character of Claire is fascinating, and Najarra Townsend is fantastic, waving from absolute insanity to her quiet unstableness. Always grounded in reality, Townsend truly takes us on a journey. So why then does the rest of the film just seem so bland?
It's a question I kept asking myself throughout the film. Everything should work, but so much doesn't. For one thing, Claire is a very sloppy killer. Now, that can work as a character choice. Not every killer is calculated and cunning. But from her very first kill, we see how she takes absolutely no precautions when she kills someone. As she cuts the scalp off of her first victim's head, blood pours onto her work floor. She just wipes it up later, but why not put something underneath it, like plastic? She doesn't ever use gloves, so her fingerprints have to be all over the bodies. She also later kills someone in a coffee shop. Again, blood goes everywhere but somehow she cleans it all up and... wipes all of her fingerprints? We also never learn how she is able to dispose of the bodies, and why is no one is ever really "onto her." Near the end of the film, she sees a blurry security picture of her posted in a coffee shop that says, "Have you seen her," labeling her as a person of interest. But that's it. There's no police investigation, no one on her trail. No one in her life suspects her of anything but maybe being creepy. So instead of it feeling like she's a sloppy killer, it feels like sloppy writing. Such is also the case when missing posters for the victim of the coffee shop employee hang in the background of a scene but Claire and the barista speak of the girls funeral. Is she missing or not? Did they find her? Did the prop department have a day off?
Inconsistencies flood the film (Claire is hired to do all the wedding hair, but only does the bride and one kid. Who did everyone else's hair? Why did they even need her then?) and it is moments like this that drag down a film that has so much promise. That, and if you watch the very beginning, one scene in the middle and the final scene you'll have the entire plot. Everything else could be cut. THE STYLIST is based on a short film of the same name (with the same lead actress) and although the film is an improvement of the short, there seems to be no more story to tell. Will Claire get revenge on the bridesmaids or mess with the groomsmen or groom to be? Maybe Olivia's parents? No, instead we simply see her texting A LOT, wandering around and yelling "Stupid, stupid" over and over. The entire film could be cut down to 30 minutes and might be a gripping short. It's not that THE STYLIST is bad even. It's wildly inconsistent and boring, which feels like an even worse crime to behold.
GRADE: C-
WRITTEN BY BY Jill Gevargizian, Eric Havens, Eric Stolze DIRECTED BY Jill Gevargizian STARRING Najarra Townsend, Brea Grant, Sarah McGuire, Millie Milan. NOW STREAMING EXCLUSIVELY ON ARROW. FOR MORE INFO: https://www.arrow-player.com/