Bad decisions but good intentions practically sum up the entirety of the themes throughout this movie but this film remains indecisive as it attempts to choose one or the other. Max Winkler's Flower is a darkly comedic slice-of-life film that tries its hardest to be a carefree, feminist (almost) coming-of-age story, but fails to provide any sort of satisfactory ending for its audience. Mostly relying on shock value and incredibly dark twists and turns, this movie presents itself as being so groundbreaking, when in reality it does not really accomplish anything. Despite some expectedly solid performances and an indie tone that could not have been more exaggerated, I found it really hard to get into this film as much as many others apparently have.
Erica (Zoey Deutch) and her friends Kala (Dylan Gelula) and Claudine (Maya Eshet) are a trio of teenagers that make money off of exploiting perverted men and their sexual desires for underage girls. When Erica's mom Laurie (Kathryn Hahn) marries a man named Bob (Tim Heidecker), they move in together along with Bob's son Luke (Joey Morgan), freshly out of rehab. After learning more about her new step-brother, Erica finds out that Luke was inappropriately touched by a former teacher of his named Will (Adam Scott) and together they work to get their revenge. This story had the potential to be an immensely dark and uncomfortable look into how these awful kinds of men think (or a comedy about these girls and their hilariously dark business), but that was wasted by lackluster subplots. As the main plot progressed and carried on as I typically expected, the ending threw me for the strangest loop. This film turned from a really gloomy comedy into an offsetting love story that did not fit at all. The last fifteen minutes of this movie took such a weird twist that was completely nonsensical and the sudden love story between Erica and Luke was unsettling, to say the least. Not just because they were step-siblings but mostly because of the absence of any romantic development. Winkler's direction was not the greatest choice for this film either, as I feel another director could have achieved a much clearer storytelling path. And while this movie undoubtedly carries a signature, bleak tone that could only be achieved by an indie of this type, I just feel like the characters within its world did not fit in it at all. It is strange enough the way these characters interact with their true intentions, but what was even stranger was the complete lack of focus on what this script was trying to say. This movie's clustered story did not blend well with its direction in the slightest.
My biggest issue with Flower, however, is that I just could not get attached to any of its characters. This script, written by Winkler himself, Matt Spicer, and Alex McAulay, featured a slew of characters that were all written so strangely in a way that is widely unrelatable. While the premise that these girls use Erica's relentless sexuality to exploit these men could have led to an awesome film, the way that they interacted with each other and behaved at home just seemed a bit foreign to me. I could not feel for Erica because of her brashness and blind confidence but I also could not feel for Luke because of his role in the unnecessary relationship between the two. The main reason that I was not sure how to feel during this movie is after the girls and Luke accidentally kill Will. Even after Will's emotional plea and Erica's attempt to stop him from drinking the beer, it is never revealed whether or not he was actually a pedophile like the film set him up to be. This made me wary of whether what Erica did was right or not and because of this ambiguity, I found it hard to sympathize with any of her actions past that point, especially because that subplot seemed to be almost instantly dropped. Things that I did like about this story, however, were its minor feminist element and the performances from the whole cast. Erica's audacious personality stemmed from her feminist beliefs that she could do what she wanted with her body, which was great to see. She reiterated multiple times throughout this movie about how she simply enjoyed going down on guys and how it was no big deal for her. As nearly cocky as her character might have been, I did really enjoy this aspect of her. All of the performances in this film, in fact, were great; despite many of the characters not working well together, each actress and actor definitely held their own.
Flower is a strange and interesting movie that had the potential to touch on so many different aspects of its story but refused to give any of them a full chance. I can understand why many would enjoy this story, but I found this film far too messy to even enjoy. Thankfully, I was really only here to thirst-watch for Adam Scott and I was pleasantly surprised to see that the film's main characters shared the same opinion as me, if only briefly.
My Rating: ★★
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