Jane review
How far are you willing to go to succeed?
JANE Arrives on UK digital on 13th February from 101 Films. you can watch the Trailer below.
A poignant and gripping psychological thriller produced by and starring Madelaine Petsch (Riverdale) alongside Academy-Award® winner Melissa Leo (The Fighter) and Chlöe Bailey, from five-time Grammy-nominated R&B group Chlöex Halle.
Directed by Sabrina Jaglom (Home Again, Unforgettable) the film is a beautifully shot, poignant thriller which begs the question: How far are you willing to go to succeed?
On the outside Olivia (Madelaine Petsch) is the perfect student, with her heart set on getting into Stanford University, but she is hiding her struggle with grief and anxiety following her best friend Jane’s (Chloe Yu) suicide.
She has used her proud position on the debate team to bolster her university application so when the new girl Camille (Nina Bloomgarden – Fatherhood), a national debating champion arrives on the scene she feels this could ruin her chances of getting into her university of choice.
The fact that Camille comes across as a bit of a bitch makes Olivias old friend Izzy (Chlöe Bailey) look to see if she can dig up some dirt on Camille. Offence archaeology 101
They find that Camille has a bit of a shady past at her previous school, hence the move and while doing so they discover Jane had logged into her social media profile while at Izzy’s house and never logged off, so they decide to use this old profile to dish the dirt.
This plan has the desired effect and Camille leaves the school as quickly as she entered.
The girls then turn their attentions to a teacher that “nobody likes”.
The school principal, superbly portrayed by Golden Globe and Oscar Winner Melissa Leo tries to get to the bottom of all that is going on at the school, with little success.
Olivia’s increasing visions of Jane, panic attacks and erratic behaviour lead the girls to do something far more sinister at a party which results in something neither girl intended and leads to the investigation into the Jane profile to be elevated.
With what started as a bit of a game quickly threatening the girl’s futures, can they stop themselves being caught? Is it too late to stop? Has it already gone far enough or will there be far more, deadlier consequences?
The film has a runtime of around 80 minutes, this leads to there being very little in the way of wasted screentime. The characters are quickly fleshed out and you get a good feeling of who they are.
What you think about one person can change quickly, they seem ok then you wonder if they’re up to something and I couldn’t tell if this was written this way or somewhat due to the, slightly iffy, performance of Chloe. The strong performances of Petsch and Leo, and even the silent performance of Yu make the slightly emotionally stilted performance from Bailey stand out like a sore thumb. She’s not a bad actor by any means (the final act demonstrates this), it’s just that the emotions she’s portraying don’t fit at times and this can pull you out of those scenes a bit. Is she a wrong’un? Oh no she’s just not moving her face.
The film looks lovely, it’s beautifully shot with transitions between Yu and Petsch really adding to the feeling of complete psychological breakdown.
The sound and score are superb, really amping up the tension when required.
Being a bit nerdy, the home location of the important final moments of the film has a quite visible security camera or two, which would really scupper things, wouldn’t it?
It’s a real insight into what school kids have to go through these days with the pressure to succeed and the claustrophobic embrace of social media making it feel impossible to escape having a massive effect on mental health.
Jane may be a film that you overlook but I urge you not to, it’s more than worth your time.
You might want to delete your social media accounts afterwards though…
Jane makes its UK premiere on 13th February from 101 Films.
