Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022) - Swift and Tense Psychological Thriller with an Unnecessarily Negative Portrayal of Female Characters - 7/10 (13/09/22)

Bodies Bodies Bodies is a psychological thriller with satirical elements that entertains with swift pace and a dramatic series of events. The movie however doesn't only entertain but at times criticizes the habits of Generation Z in an exaggerated way and also makes fun of the contemporary high society in an overblown stereotypical manner. In addition to this, this movie tries to be on the pulse of time as it features characters with quite colourful, diversified and at times eccentric social backgrounds.

The movie mainly follows the perspective of Bee, a shy, intelligent and empathic young woman of Eastern European origin who has recently dropped out of school to help her mother who is suffering from borderline personality disorder but who hasn't told anyone about this decision yet. She decides to spend the weekend with her sociable, quirky and joyful new girlfriend Sophie who wants to go to a party organized by a few friends and acquaintances at a luxurious mansion. Things however start to turn sour upon arrival as the couple is told that nobody expected them to come as Sophie is confronted with jealousy and Bee with arrogance. The two young women decide to stay nonetheless and participate in the dancing, drinking and taking drugs in the early hours of the evening. After a verbal argument during a party game, the host briefly disappears to mysteriously collapse outside and is found dead by the visitors. As a hurricane cuts the mansion off from the rest of society, the different visitors must find a way to survive the night.

This movie convinces on a few elements. First and foremost, lead character Bee is a truly intriguing choice as the heroine of this film because her calm, composed and intellectual approach differentiates her from the more emotional, intense and nervous characters. Up next, this movie has swift pace and entertains from start to finish as a series of dramatic events occur at rapid pace after a short and fitting introduction. The settings of the film aren't too extravagant but serve the purpose of this psychological thriller well as the mansion offers an elevated number of unique rooms as well as a beautiful natural environment. The idea to let the movie take place during a hurricane which leads to the tense isolation of the different characters is also very fitting.

However, this film is certainly not without its flaws. The most important element to mention is that women are portrayed in an extremely negative way in my opinion. This comes as a surprise since the story was written by a woman, the screenplay was adapted by a woman, the movie was directed by a woman and all but three characters in this film are women as well. If the same movie had been written or directed by a man, he would rightfully have been accused of sexism. The characters in this film are constantly taking drugs, screaming at one another, menacing one another, lying to one another, bullying one another and eventually killing one another. Even the sympathetic lead character gets involved into this madness and rapidly loses track of her very positive character traits. About halfway into the movie, the way the characters are behaving is so childish, judgemental and vile that it's hard to feel empathy or sympathy for any of them. This superficial portrayal of the characters is essentially the element that makes a promising movie a slight disappointment with a bitter aftertaste. Another element that should be criticized is that the outcome of the movie isn't surprising at all. The film drops so many clues that help the audience solve the different puzzles that it significantly decreases the tension of this film.

At the end of the day, Bodies Bodies Bodies is a tense psychological thriller criticizing contemporary society that convinces with a strong lead character, swift pace and fitting settings. The plot is however too easy to predict and the female characters are portrayed in an excessively negative way that might leave viewers with an uncomfortable feeling. Perhaps the latter element wasn't the intention of the creators but that's the way I ended up feeling about this. This is why you need a calm, open and tolerant mind to truly enjoy this movie to its fullest.