joe lawler

After this year gutting and revelatory Promising Young Woman and Tape, I didn’t think I could take another rape revenge movie no matter how original and empowering. But Rose Plays Julie, directed by Irish filmmakers Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor, upends revenge tropes with unsettling and eerie imagery as it blends thriller, horror film and mother daughter bonding story, told via two female protagonists who flip the tables on victimhood.

If you had trouble watching Carey Mulligan in Promising Young Woman turning the tables on men who prey on inebriated women in bars as she sets a trap by acting drunk in clubs in you should be forewarned that the eerie, unnerving thriller Rose Plays Julie takes such matters more than a few steps farther. Let’s just say the spirit of the cult ‘80s vengeance drama Ms. 45 is alive and kicking years later.