The Perfection Made People 'Physically Sick,' But It's One Of Netflix's Best Original Movies
Richard Shepard's 2018 film "The Perfection" quickly made waves on its Netflix debut. It wasn't just an Allison Williams-starring horror movie that gave her the chance to embrace what was so revelatory about her performance in Jordan Peele's "Get Out."
It was also dark, twisty, a little bit disgusting, and shocking enough to make a huge impression. It fits into the classic mold of art school obsession stories, with evil mentors, traumatic pasts, and the slight possibility of redemption outside the movie's design. Like "Whiplash" and "Black Swan," it deals with the psychological break accompanying the seeking of "perfection" in art. Whether or not the plot's lurid details detract from the movie is a worthwhile question, but the fact that it veers into a slimier, creepier territory than both is a feature, not a bug.
With its four-part structure and elegant, Brian De Palma-esque compositions (complete with an unprecedented amount of split diopter shots), the movie proves itself as extremely stylish and unconventional. It's also shamelessly schlocky, erotic, and violent at various extremes. The violence might be largely suggested by giving viewers the before and after, rather than the act itself. But the implications themselves are disturbing and stomach-churning.
Speaking of stomach-churning, the movie is also notable for its bravery in depicting all-out body horror, to the point of, according to The Independent, making viewers sick. From the puking to the maggots to the bodily violence implied and depicted, "The Perfection" is a wild ride. Its artistic aspirations and a clear homage to its various inspirations also make it one of Netflix's best original films.
Perfection in four acts
Some of the special quality of "The Perfection" comes from its unique, "Pulp Fiction"-esque structure. The movie's told in four acts, and each one builds to its own deranged, shocking climax. Some of them rewind to about 20 minutes before to show us a crucial detail we missed.
And all of them center around the twisted, loving relationship between two cellists, one of whom, Lizzie (Logan Browning), is at the top of her game. The other, Charlotte (Allison Williams), effectively retired from the instrument as a teenager when her mom got sick. When we meet Charlotte, Williams can barely restrain the resentment at her stolen future — at least, that's what it looks like. The scars on her forearm suggest it too.
Why would she be in Shanghai, if not out of total obsession? She's there for Lizzie, a woman she has only met once, in the grand home of her mentor Anton (Steven Weber), on the day she was ejected from his Bachoff Academy. Revenge seems like an obvious motive, but the two quickly hit it off, going dancing after an erotically charged cello duet and ultimately sleeping together. The only clue to their shared trauma is a tattoo of an eighth note on each of their shoulders, the insignia of the Bachoff Academy.
"The Perfection" likes playing coy with its viewers, giving you a straightforward moment and then revealing what you missed, with increasingly elaborate narrative mazes developing as the movie goes on. When Lizzie seems sick and irritated with Charlotte as they take off on a bus trip from Shanghai, it's easy to think she's simply hungover and regretting indulging Charlotte's enthusiasm. But on the bus, her sickness morphs into something truly disturbing.
Up with the sickness
The bus hosts the scene that The Independent claims made viewers sick. Lizzie's illness becomes overpowering, and she pukes inside the bus, while Charlotte impotently tries to direct the driver towards a hospital. Her vomit, Charlotte notes, has maggots in it.
Seeing a movie that has thus far been a relatively elegant, classy production dig into truly gnarly, vomity horror is a good shock to the system. Like 2022's "Triangle of Sadness," the helplessness and grotesque spectacle of it all functions like an exclamation point on what's actually ailing these characters. Off the bus, Lizzie tries to go to the bathroom. Charlotte again points out the bugs in Lizzie's bloodstream, now crawling in her arm. Lifting up a meat cleaver out of nowhere, Charlotte tells Lizzie, "You know what you have to do," giving the movie its most memetic moment.
We soon learn the bugs have been hallucinations aided by Charlotte, who's been giving Lizzie some of her mom's old meds. Charlotte has been guided by revenge this whole time, but not towards Lizzie. While the movie takes some time revealing all of its many twists, it becomes clear that Charlotte is acting out of an unhinged sense of justice, the kind that would get somebody to chop their lover's arm off. It's part of a long game, helping her to remove Charlotte from Anton's brainwashing clutches. The shock factor is layered.
Back to Bachoff
The first half of "The Perfection" casts Charlotte as an obsessive avenger, to a cryptic end. In the second half, we learn more, including the root of her obsession: her studies under Anton at Bachoff Academy.
Following their return from Shanghai, Anton and his wife Paloma (Alaina Huffman) have taken in a young Chinese girl named Zhang Li (Eileen Tian). They want nothing to do with the desperate Lizzie now that she's missing an arm and can no longer play the cello. So Lizzie breaks into Charlotte's home, attacks her, and drags her back to Anton's magisterial New England house.
Through the years covered by the movie, Anton's cadre of young female students seemingly suggests a charitable interest in teaching and helping the youth to achieve success in the world of classical music. Steven Weber plays him warmly as a cozy mentor type, all the better for when the mask comes off. Charlotte has awful memories of being his child student, but he attributes that to being a "taskmaster." In his mind, he's not a bad guy like Terence Fletcher in "Whiplash" or a predator like Lydia Tàr. But Charlotte's memories reveal something worse, something that could only be activated with the death of her mom.
The movie's impressionistic style is never put to better effect than in these flashbacks, where audio distorts and goes silent, where brief flashes of Anton's naked body, intercut with shots of young Charlotte, say everything. The damage he wrought on Charlotte is one thing, but the fact that he's going to continue doing it, unchecked, is even worse.
Shadows and vengeance
Regardless of whether or not "The Perfection" is a "trashy" film, it has a genuine interest in its characters, and in the idea of recovery from trauma. As well, the movie digs into the patriarchal abuse of power which emerges in its back half to horrific effect. Being a Miramax production (per Deadline) that began shooting in early 2018, just months after that company's (long since separated) founder Harvey Weinstein was accused of sexual assault, all of it adds a grotesque shadow to the material, but one that also gives its ending a cathartic edge.
We learn, through another rewind sequence, that the return to Anton's home was a plan by both Charlotte and Lizzie, the latter of whom accepted her arm getting cut off when she realized how quickly Anton dispensed with her when she was no longer of any use to him. The team-up destroys not just Anton, but other higher-ups in the Bachoff Academy, as well as Paloma. In one final, beautifully realized touch, Charlotte and Lizzie play cello together to Anton as he's restrained, limbs chopped off, mouth and eyes sewn shut, ready to die.
Between the extreme flashes of body horror, the bits of violence, and the righteous anger towards systemic abuse, "The Perfection" has a lot to recommend. Even if it makes you sick.