Emily Beecham, Ben Whishaw, Kerry Fox
British-Austrian director Jessica Hausner’s (Lourdes, Amour Fou) first English language feature is a sci-fi horror starring Ben Whishaw and Emily Beecham, who won Best Actress for her role at Cannes 2019, where the film was selected to screen in Competition for the Palme d’Or.
She plays Alice, the senior plant breeder at a corporation engaged in developing new species. With her colleague Chris (Whishaw), she engineers a crimson flower with a scent designed to induce happiness, and names it Little Joe after her son. But as it grows, so too does Alice’s suspicion that her new creation may not be as harmless as its nickname suggests – and may in fact have serious side effects.
Likened to Invasion of the Body Snatchers by director Don Siegel, Hausner’s crisp, fluid camera work and consistently stunning imagery – backed by Teiji Ito’s haunting score – combine in this witty, unsettling and consistently weird story about the pitfalls of placing too much trust in everyday science.
