For the better part of the narrative, viewers are rooting for the heartbroken and fatherless (yet nonetheless privileged) Uma to lead her roommates to freedom. Learning that she will be sent home the next day, Uma decides to leave and convinces Chloe and Yu to run away with her in the night. A golden ballroom is the setting of the palatial wedding reception for Uma (Emma Roberts) and Son (Arnaud Valois). This pastoral location provides the veneer for what actually functions as a privatized prison. Alice Waddington 's feature debut "Paradise Hills" certainly leaves an aesthetic impression but has a number of filmmaking missteps. Told over an intercom shes in paradise, of course, Uma doesnt quite buy it (why would she? Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! In her feature film directorial debut, "Paradise Hills," Alice Waddington constructs a simultaneously ornate and seductive yet deeply unsettling futuristic world in which anachronisms in. DRAMA 2019 TV-14 D, V 95min Watch Now An outspoken young woman, Uma, wakes up one morning in Paradise Hills, a high-class treatment facility on an isolated Mediterranean island led by the Duchess (Milla Jovovich) where well-off families send their daughters to become perfect versions of themselves. [12] Shortly after, Samuel Goldwyn Films acquired distribution rights to the film. You know, we have families, too." Uma discovers that Markus was actually lying and is working with Paradise Hills. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. [8] Filming took place in the Spanish municipality of Gldar, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands. the film piles on more weirdo mythology and big questions about the nature of capitalism, patriarchy, and being yourself. SMART Growth grant from the Chicago Community Trust, CityArts Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events, MacArthur Funds for Culture, Equity and the Arts. It's at Paradise Hills where she quickly falls into friendship with Chloe (Dumplin's Danielle Macdonald), a southern belle whose full-figured profile is an eye sore to her pageant-centric mother, and Yu (Awkwafina), a headphone-wearing outsider who suffers from panic attacks. Yus double delivers a monologue that informs the audience these rich protagonists who weve perceiveduntil this pointas prisoners have experienced nothing compared to the abject situation of the most desperate Lowers. Two months earlier, Uma awakens in a strange room and realizes that she is trapped on an island called Paradise. Paradise Hills has cult-film potential, but it doesnt seem destined for a major release, and it appears to still be looking for distribution. In an obvious metaphor, the Dutchess spends most of her time stripping thorns from roses. [13] It was released in Spain on 11 October 2019, by Alfa Pictures. The scene and the exchange are not just a wake-up call for Uma, but for the viewer as well. He promised me my brothers would never go hungry again. For most of its runtime, Paradise Hills looks like it will be a story about what society demands of young women and how social and economic factors (the films society is divided into Uppers and Lowers) try to get them to conform to stereotypes to appease men. Paradise Hills is set in a world of hyper-stratified class divisions, flying Art Deco cars, hologram jewelry, and fashion that blends gauzy Victorian ruffles with neon hair and makeup. In her feature film directorial debut, "Paradise Hills," Alice Waddington constructs a simultaneously ornate and seductive yet deeply unsettling futuristic world in which anachronisms in attitudes, dress, and social hierarchy act as a form of toxic nostalgia and a means by which the upper classes and the patriarchy maintain control. A first feature film by director Alice Waddington, Paradise Falls is an impressive entrance into the world of genre film. Share November 12, 2019 https://chrp.at/3bIw Share on Facebook Tweet This! Alice Waddingtons feature debut Paradise Hills certainly leaves an aesthetic impression but has anumber of filmmaking missteps. This ominous orchestration to make women that turns women who would otherwise escape into compliant dolls, also introduces the threat of sexual violence into Paradise. Anna returns to Uma's wealthy family pretending to be Uma, and marries Son. Alice Waddingtons first feature film Paradise Hills (2019) begins and ends with the same scene. This review contains minor spoilers for the plot of Paradise Hills. At some point in the future or in an alternate reality (its never clear which), Uma (Emma Roberts) wakes up in a treatment facility on an island that looks like Disneyland by way of Jony Ive. Sundance 2019: reviews from the annual indie film festival, The Hulu documentary Jawline poignantly explores the price of social media stardom, Netflixs I Am Mother is a slow, tense movie about how we love and fear AI, Hail Satan? The association of white with "virginal purity" and the dystopian future's belief that this, too, is a necessary characteristic of the ideal woman reiterates this future world's unworkably narrow definition of womanhood. No amount of stylish production values and costumes can make up for that. So Ana will get to live among the 'upper' society as the new-and-improved Uma, while Uma gets to be free from her family for good. Yu fatally succumbs to the injuries caused by the surgeons, with Chloe and Uma escaping and ending up at a garden, where bodies of past Paradise girls are discovered. Set in an intentionally vague future wherein people are referred to as "Uppers" and "Lowers," cars finally fly, and the economic gap appears to resemble that of pre-to-early industrial age London, the core narrative of "Paradise Hills" has been likened to a feminist version of Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange" (via Pajiba). The setting can be a futuristic world or in space, the villains perhaps benevolent machines went bad or a society that has turned technology against itself. That place works miracles, Son remarks, you were so difficult before.. Paradise Hills offers no solutions to the problems it presents, instead choosing to lay them bare to the audience as a warning. Goon Rocks the Empty Bottle This Thursday! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here. Our sympathies splinter and the films narrative becomes more conceptually nuanced. (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)/*