Elle (2016)

IMDb plot summary: A successful businesswoman gets caught up in a game of cat and mouse as she tracks down the unknown man who raped her.

Directed by Paul Verhoeven. Starring Isabelle Huppert, Laurent Lafitte, Anne Consigny, and Charles Berling.

Isabelle Huppert got an Oscar nomination for her work here, and it's well-deserved. She conveys so much with so little, these subtle little moments that suddenly tell us so much about what's going on inside her. The narrative itself is... complex and tricky to sort out. While I think it's done well and thoughtfully in a way that gives Huppert's character a lot of agency and depth, I do sort of raise my eyebrow at this story being written and directed solely by men. It doesn't automatically disqualify it for me, but it means I hold it a little bit at arms' length and am a little less sure I like it than I was at first. It makes me wonder how much of its story is meant to be... tantalizing instead of thought-provoking. Huppert's work deserves recognition, but I'm still parsing out how much recognition the film deserves on its own.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Elle > One, Two, Three

Elle < Hoop Dreams

Elle < Harakiri

Elle < Holiday Inn

Elle < 21

Elle < Kinky Boots the Musical

Elle < The Keep

Elle < Nine Queens

Elle > Raising Cain

Elle < The Major and the Minor

Elle < Absolute Power

Elle > Escape from New York

Final spot: #1658 out of 3331, or 50%.