Those with a soft spot for low-rent thrillers have become accustomed to expecting the unexpected, but when do you ever hear of a movie being released without a credit writer? Then again, in the case of Measure of Revenge, it’s easy to see why the unfortunate scribe would rather their name not be made public.
Directed by mononym filmmaker Peyfa and scripted by… somebody, the outlandishly odd and thoroughly terrible genre flick begins with a bizarre bang, and then keeps getting more unwieldy from there. Even more galling is the fact that it’s got an Academy Award winner in the lead, but even Melissa Leo can’t save Measure of Revenge from disaster.
The Fighter star plays a fading theater actress and bereaved mother, who launches her own investigation into the death of her son after the authorities rule it to be an accidental overdose. Along the way, she befriends her late child’s drug dealer (played by Bella Thorne), and at various points hallucinates many of the characters she’s played onstage, who act as an inner monologue of sorts.
Needless to say, the unpalatable combination of full-bore existential crisis, surreal revenge story, and cloying melodrama did not fare well with critics, but Measure of Revenge has at least landed an unexpectedly solid berth on streaming. As per FlixPatrol, the widely panned and off-puttingly unique mashup has become the eighth most-watched title on Hulu over the weekend, so maybe the mysterious writer will be able to come forward now that their most recent flick has finally found an audience.
Published: Aug 7, 2022 11:57 am