Director Guy Nattiv’s latest psychological thriller follows Rita Cooper, a middle-aged woman struggling with the weight of her everyday existence in 1980s New Jersey. Played by Carrie Coon with remarkable emotional depth, Rita lives a monotonous life juggling her job at a bank with her responsibilities as a wife and mother. Her quiet desperation shifts dramatically when she encounters the enigmatic Ricki at her workplace, a charismatic young woman who poses a seemingly innocent question about life’s simple pleasures.
What begins as a casual encounter becomes the catalyst for Rita’s gradual descent into a female-led cult. Unlike typical cult narratives centered on manipulative male figures, this film presents a darker scenario built on the seductive appeal of female solidarity and liberation. Ricki, portrayed by Lily James with unsettling charm, recognizes Rita’s vulnerabilities and offers her something she desperately seeks: acceptance, purpose, and freedom from societal constraints. The film explores how easily a woman feeling trapped by age and expectation can be lured toward what appears to be genuine understanding.
Told across two timelines, the narrative alternates between Rita’s initial seduction into the cult and a desperate rescue mission led by her daughters. Coon delivers a powerhouse dual performance, embodying Rita’s frantic domestic self and her eerily peaceful commune persona with striking contrast. Nattiv’s deeply personal script, co-written with Noa Berman Herzberg and inspired by the director’s own grandmother and various cult survivors, examines universal themes of female alienation and the dangerous allure of false belonging with unflinching precision.
Originally reported by Variety →
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