Elisabeth Moss soars in Her Smell, a portrait of epic self-destruction. Moss plays a talented and charismatic rock star, her narcissism exponentially magnified by drugs. She is so deranged that we can’t tell if she is possessed by demons or is a demon herself. While the drugs make her a monster, we learn that they are not the only influence on her damaged psyche.
Moss’ performance as the volatile and feral Becky Something is terrifyingly unhinged and explosive. Becky immediately pivots (even mid-sentence) between charmer and predator. Moss is utterly committed to this role and left nothing on the sound stage. It’s the powerhouse performance of 2019.
We first grew to appreciate Elisabeth Moss as Peggy Olson, perhaps the Mad Men character with the greatest arc. Since then, she’s anchored The Handmaid’s Tale, and I recommend her less well-known turn as an Aussie cop in the Top of the Lake miniseries. But after people see Her Smell, they’ll start thinking that she can play ANYTHING – and anything compellingly .
Moss also sings well enough to make a credible rock star. As I wrote about Elle Fanning in Teen Spirit, given that Rami Malek just won an Oscar for lip-syncing, we should bestow a Nobel upon Moss.
The Wife noticed that writer-director Alex Ross Perry’s choices of chaotic camera and discordant musical tones mirror the character’s inner chaos; later, he uses serenity and stillness to help us distill Becky’s persona. I also agree with The Wife that Her Smell is unnecessarily long at two hours and fourteen minutes; this would be a much more powerful film at 100 minutes. (Ross also wrote Listen Up Philip, a very funny dark comedy about another dysfunctional protagonist and one of the very few successful mumblecore films; Moss co-starred with Jason Schwartzman in that one.)
Her Smell’s supporting players are superb, especially Agnyess Deyn and Gayle Rankin as Becky’s bandmates, Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey) as her ex and art house vet Eric Stolz as her manager; in turn enabling Becky and being victimized by her, they are always walking on eggshells. Becky’s mom is played by the sublime Virginia Madsen. Former model Cara Delevingne was excellent in the teen film Paper Towns, and does well here as one of Becky’s bewildered acolytes.
Her Smell’s theatrical run is not likely to last long – try to find it. I’ll make a point of making it a Stream of the Week when it becomes available on video.