Greta

Greta (2019) starts with a handbag left on the subway. A young waitress returns it to its owner, a polite Frenchwoman living alone. The two become friends, and then the girl works out that the bag was not left there by accident. Neil Jordan directed and co wrote it. For the man who made The Crying Game and Interview with the Vampire this is plainly a small scale genre picture, and it does not pretend otherwise. The whole weight rests on Isabelle Huppert. Past a certain point she takes the character fully into excess and the film backs the choice; the result is less frightening than strange, and the strangeness is clearly intended. Chloë Grace Moretz plays the young woman and Maika Monroe her flatmate. It premiered at Toronto. It runs 98 minutes. Good for: obsession thrillers, Isabelle Huppert, and genre filmmaking in an eighties and nineties register. Less good for: the plot is not interested in logic and the characters make obviously wrong decisions repeatedly. The tension only works if you accept that; anyone expecting realism will lose it quickly.