It takes a long time for Jagged Mind protagonist Billy (Legends of Tomorrow's Maisie Richardson-Sellers) to figure out the evil intentions his new girlfriend Alex (Westworld's Shannon Woodward) is keeping from him, but the audience gets there much faster. In a way, Jagged Mind's initial disclaimer about depictions of intimate partner violence works as a spoiler, making Alex's first appearance even more threatening than the film's generally sinister tone indicates. . That kind of blunt, obvious storytelling keeps Jagged Mind from being truly scary or moving, but the movie does have some strong, sporadic moments.
From the start, something seems wrong with Billy's perception of time. Worried about inheriting his mother's early-onset dementia, he experiences bouts of déjà vu and wasted time. She goes for a run through Little Haiti, her neighborhood in her Miami, she stops in the middle of the street, and all of a sudden, she's left alone in a bar for the night. That's where she meets Alex, who kindly sends Billy a glass of wine and then joins her. Billy has a feeling that she's met Alex before, but maybe that's just a sign of a romantic connection.
Director: Kelley Kali
Writer: Allyson Morgan
Stars: Maisie Richardson-Sellers, Shannon Woodward, Rosaline Elbay
There are moments where it feels like Jagged Mind could become a time-loop story of two people caught up in their first romantic meeting, much like the Hulu original movie Palm Springs or the underrated Meet Cute, but after a few instances of their initial encounter , Billy and Alex apparently make things right. Billy invites Alex to accompany him to her work event, where her coworker and ex-girlfriend Christine (Rosaline Elbay) is mysteriously missing this time. Alex and Billy fall quickly in love, and instead of repeating a single night, Jagged Mind shifts to a montage of months passing.
Skewed time passage continues to be a theme as Jagged Mind progresses and Billy's blackouts become more frequent. Alex seems controlling and possessive, but that could just be an expression of her concern, or Billy's confused understanding of what's going on around her. Principal Kelley Kali shows enough of Alex's angry outbursts and insults to convey the sense that she is dangerous, but every time there is an abusive incident, time returns to the same moment, with Alex behaving perfectly fine and rational.
Of course, Alex isn't actually likable or rational, and Woodward deftly expresses anger just under her calm facade. Even without the eventual supernatural elements, Jagged Mind could be a solid small-scale drama about an abusive relationship, set against a queer backdrop that doesn't get enough recognition or representation in the movies. That's not really what the Jagged Mind is about, though, and hints of what Alex is doing to Billy, beyond her family's domestic abuse, derails most of Jagged Mind's emotional power.
Writer Allyson Morgan expanded Jagged Mind from an episode she wrote of Hulu's Halloween anthology series Bite Size, and the transition from a four-minute short to a nearly 90-minute feature is a bit bumpy. That's especially evident in the final act of Jagged Mind, when Billy realizes what Alex is doing to him. The supernatural explanation is full of barely sketched horror movie clichés, and seems to undermine some of the themes around abusive relationships and gaslighting.
Still, Kali is good at creating an atmosphere of fear and mistrust, and the constant changes in weather keep Billy and the audience on their toes. The Little Haiti neighborhood is a unique place that hasn't been overused in horror movies, and the characters feel real beyond their place in a standard supernatural story. Richardson-Sellers is likable as Billy, though Woodward is more fascinating to watch, making Alex a devious but stylish villain.
Jagged Mind is the fourth small-scale horror film produced for Hulu by the now-defunct 20th Digital Studio, all of which have released to little fanfare. Like previous Hulu and 20th Digital Studio releases Matriarch and Clock, Jagged Mind puts a horror spin on common issues women face, taking to heart the kind of subject matter that might get dismissed or ignored in other genre movies. . It's not nearly as successful as the gloriously weird and disgusting Matriarch or the intense and disturbing Clockwork, but it's an admirable effort that falls short mainly by trying to overreach itself. In the end, Jagged Mind has caved to genre conventions, but for a while, it's intriguingly thoughtful and ambitious.
Jagged Mind premieres Thursday, June 15 on Hulu.
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