There is something to be said for a good, old fashioned trashy movie. I’m not talking “guilty pleasures” (I don’t really believe in the concept, you like something or you don’t), but rather a movie unashamed of its tastelessness. A movie that’s smart in its stupidity, that doesn’t take itself too seriously, but still manages a certain slyness along the way.
Director Paul Feig is certainly no stranger to this type of film. 2018’s “A Simple Favor,” starring Anna Kendrick as a mommy blogger who strikes up a friendship with an enigmatic, icy blonde (Blake Lively), is the platonic ideal of this genre — a silly, campy script delivered from the mouths of actors who know just how to play the preposterousness of it all.
I don’t think that Feig’s latest film “The Housemaid” (written by Rebecca Sonnenshine, based on Freida McFadden’s novel of the same name) is the best of these types of films. But it certainly lives in that lineage, and is all the better for it. The film stars Sydney Sweeney as Millie, a young woman fresh out of prison who lands a job as a maid for a wealthy housewife, Nina Winchester (Amanda Seyfried). As Nina becomes more demanding and increasingly erratic, Millie develops a close bond with Nina’s husband, Andrew (Brandon Sklenar) — a bond that eventually reveals dark secrets from the couple’s past.
Read Sammie’s full review on Rough Draft
